Implications of the TASI taxonomy for understanding inconsistent effects pertaining to free will beliefs
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Date
2023-03-01
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Taylor & Francis
Abstract
Whether people possess free will has been a long-lasting
philosophical debate. Recent attention in social psychology
has been given to the behavioral consequences of believing
in free will. Research has demonstrated that manipulating
free will beliefs has implications for many social behaviors.
For example, free will belief manipulations have been asso ciated with cheating, aggressiveness, and prejudice. Despite
this work, some of these findings have failed to replicate.
Testing theoretical predictions, such as whether believing in
free will influences behavior, depends on theoretical, auxili ary, statistical, and inferential assumptions (TASI). In this
paper we apply the TASI category of assumptions to the
free will belief debate. In doing so we demonstrate why
these assumptions should be considered when appraising
the influence of free will belief manipulations on free will
beliefs and behavior. To provide a nuanced view of free will
beliefs, we believe researchers should pay careful attention
to these critical assumptions.
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Keywords
Free will beliefs; auxiliary assumptions; theoretical assumptions; statistical assumptions; inferential assumptions; social behavior