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Is Belief in Free Will a Cultural Universal?
Author(s) -
SARKISSIAN HAGOP,
CHATTERJEE AMITA,
DE BRIGARD FELIPE,
KNOBE JOSHUA,
NICHOLS SHAUN,
SIRKER SMITA
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0017.2010.01393.x
Subject(s) - determinism , free will , moral responsibility , social psychology , epistemology , convergence (economics) , incompatibilism , psychology , sociology , compatibilism , philosophy , economics , economic growth
Recent experimental research has revealed surprising patterns in people's intuitions about free will and moral responsibility. One limitation of this research, however, is that it has been conducted exclusively on people from Western cultures. The present paper extends previous research by presenting a cross‐cultural study examining intuitions about free will and moral responsibility in subjects from the United States, Hong Kong, India and Colombia. The results revealed a striking degree of cross‐cultural convergence. In all four cultural groups, the majority of participants said that (a) our universe is indeterministic and (b) moral responsibility is not compatible with determinism.