If past events had happened differently, then a person ... Otherwise comprehenders. Yes. 63.6%. 81.0%. No. 13.6%. 7.1%. 2.43 .89 .88 1.03 .311 .44, 13.52.
Forget the Folk: Moral Responsibility Preservation Motives and Other Conditions for Compatibilism Supplemental Materials Study 1 Methodological Details Free Will Passage: Take a moment to think about human decision-making. Humans are highly intelligent, complex beings with the capacity for free will. Therefore, humans can be morally responsible for what they do. They sometimes deserve to be praised for good things they freely decide to do and deserve to be blamed for bad things they freely decide to do. Determinism Passage: Over the past century, scientists have come to learn the many causes of human behavior, including genes, brain chemistry, and social environment, and have learned that these factors predict human behavior entirely. All human thoughts and their corresponding behaviors are inevitable consequences of prior events. If past events had happened differently, then a person would have had different thoughts and desires, which would have led to different decisions. Indeterminism Passage: Over the past century, scientists have come to learn the many causes of human behavior, including genes, brain chemistry, and social environment, but have learned that these factors do not predict human behavior entirely. Human thoughts and their corresponding behaviors are not always inevitable consequences of prior events. Even if past events had happened the exact same way, a person could have different thoughts and desires, which could lead to different decisions.
Results with Subgroups Table 1. Study 1 compatibility response results by condition and subgroups. Argument Compatibility All participants Yes No Don’t Know Bypass comprehenders Yes No Don’t Know Otherwise comprehenders Yes No Don’t Know
Determinism Condition
Indeterminism Condition
OR
b
SE
Wald
p
95% CI
59.3% 24.1% 16.7%
82.7% 7.7% 9.6%
4.37 2.42
1.47 .88
.62 .61
5.70 2.13
.017 .144
1.30, 14.65 .74, 7.91
61.9% 23.8% 14.3%
79.1% 9.3% 11.6%
3.27 1.57
1.19 .45
.65 .66
3.36 .47
.067 .494
.92, 11.61 .43, 5.71
63.6% 13.6% 22.7%
81.0% 7.1% 11.9%
2.43 2.43
.89 .89
.88 .71
1.03 1.57
.311 .210
.44, 13.52 .61, 9.72
.23 .56
-1.47 -.57
.49 .52
9.06 1.21
.003 .272
.09, .60 .20, 1.57
.24 .43
-1.44 -.84
.53 .58
7.25 2.07
.007 .150
.08, .68 .14, 1.35
.11 .40
-2.20 -.92
.71 .69
9.66 1.77
.002 .184
.03, .44 .10, 1.54
Determinism Compatibility All participants Yes 44.4% 21.2% No 25.9% 53.8% Don’t Know 29.6% 25.0% Bypass comprehenders Yes 50.0% 23.3% No 26.2% 51.2% Don’t Know 23.8% 25.6% Otherwise comprehenders Yes 54.5% 19.0% No 18.2% 57.1% Don’t Know 27.3% 23.8% Note. ‘Yes’ response is reference category.
Study 2 Methodological Details Libertarian Free Will Passage: Over the past century, scientists have come to learn many influences on human behavior, including genes, brain chemistry, and social environment. These are typically beyond human control. However, scientists believe that these uncontrollable factors cannot entirely predict human behavior with 100% certainty, and indeed probably never will. This means that human behaviors are not inevitable consequences of prior causes and that humans have the capacity to choose among alternate courses of action. Though human behavior is often influenced by various uncontrollable causes, ultimately, humans still have options for how to behave. Compatibilist Free Will Passage: Over the past century, scientists have come to learn many influences on human behavior, including genes, brain chemistry, and social environment. These are typically beyond human control. Scientists believe these uncontrollable factors entirely predict human behavior with 100% certainty. This means that all human behaviors are inevitable consequences of prior causes and that humans lack the capacity to choose among alternate courses of action. However, humans do have the capacity to act in accordance with their own thoughts and desires. Though these thoughts and desires are entirely determined by uncontrollable causes, they do still contribute to behaviors. Human thoughts and actions are links in a chain of causes.
Results with Subgroups Table 2. Moral responsibility responses by conditions in Study 2 with subgroups. All Participants Free Will Condition Compatibilist Free Will Libertarian Free Will
Moral Condition Good Bad Neutral Good Bad Neutral
Yes
No
54.7% 41.7% 33.9% 78.5% 86.4% 71.2%
39.1% 50.0% 46.8% 9.2% 8.5% 13.6%
Don’t Know 6.3% 8.3% 19.4% 12.3% 5.1% 15.3%
Comprehenders Yes
No
33.3% 26.1% 5.3% 80.0% 87.5% 73.6%
58.3% 73.9% 89.5% 8.0% 10.4% 13.2%
Don’t Know 8.3% 0.0% 5.3% 12.0% 2.1% 13.2%
Table 3. Moral responsibiliity results in Study 2 with subgroups. Comparison
OR
b
SE
Wald
p
95% CI
Yes vs. No Yes vs. DK Yes vs. No Yes vs. DK Yes vs. No Yes vs. DK
7.95 1.91 1.73 2.44 1.32 3.20
2.07 .65 .55 .89 .27 1.16
.29 .35 .32 .40 .32 .45
50.78 3.46 2.88 4.94 .73 6.64
