There is a very clever little experiment that you would be amused by, run by my colleague Jonathan Schooler. He has a bunch of students read a paragraph or two from the Francis Crick book, Astonishing Hypothesis, which is very deterministic in tone and intent. And then he has another group of students reading an inspirational book about how we make our own decisions and determine our own path. He then lets each group play a videogame in which you’re free to cheat. So guess who cheats? The people who have just read that it’s all determined cheat their pants off.
—Tom Wolfe and Michael Gazzaniga discuss neuroscience, psychology, status, and free will over at Seed Magazine.
(Via Big Contrarian.)
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Comment by Andres Ball — November 12, 2008 @ 11:09 pm