Free will can be understood as the ability to choose and act independently of external influences and deterministic factors. We tested the effect of the degree of belief in free will on the willingness to help and the attribution of blame to victims by religious and non-religious people. It was predicted that the effect would be stronger in religious individuals. There were 204 subjects (M = 20.33 yrs, SD = 1.58), including 100 religious people (39.70% women) and 104 non-religious people (40.70% women). The experiment was designed in the Psytoolkit platform. Subjects were randomly assigned to (1) the control group - starting by filling the Free Will and Determinism Scale (FAD-Plus) - or one of two experimental groups, reading before FAD-Plus the text regarding: (2) free will, or (3) determinism. Next, all individuals read stories and rate on a seven-point Likert scale how much they would give the protagonist help and how much they would blame the victims. It turned out that religious people had a higher belief in free will than non-religious people. Religious people's belief in free will was also more resistant to deterministic belief manipulation than non-religious people's belief in free will. Only in non-religious people, the manipulation of belief in free will made people with a higher score in FAD-Plus compared to those with a lower score more willing to help others, while being more inclined to blame victims. It appeared that the manipulation used had a greater effect on non-religious people compared to religious people.
Book of Abstracts
The Impact Of Belief In Free Will On Willingness To Help And Victim Blaming In Religious And Non-Religious People