Does the nature of what you chose truly mean anything?
Does it make a difference what attitudes people have regarding free will and determinism? Is it possible that these attitudes could affect other beliefs and attitudes that individuals hold? Some philosophers have argued that it does, that beliefs regarding free will are related to attitudes regarding blame, punishment, and moral responsibility. According to others, for ordinary people the appropriateness of praise and blame is closely tied to their ideas regarding free will.
In other words, how can we hold individuals responsible, blame them, and punish them for their actions if they could not do other than what they did do? In a research study examining people’s thoughts on moral responsibility in a deterministic world, participants were asked to imagine a deterministic universe in the next century with a supercomputer that could predict all aspects of the future, including human behavior, based on naturalistic laws and the current environment. Even in such a world 83% of participants indicated that a bank robber is still morally blameworthy. In other words, these participants assumed moral responsibility even in a deterministic world. However, this finding should be interpreted with caution as the majority (76%) of the participants indicated that they believed the person still robbed the bank of his own free will, confirming their reluctance to accept a deterministic world view. Similar results were found when the scenario was changed to that of a person saving a child (88% indicating praiseworthy; 68% indicating a free will action) or going jogging (79% indicating a free will action) rather than robbing a bank. When asked if the individual could have chosen otherwise, 67% indicated that the robber could have chosen differently, not to rob the bank, but 62% answered that the individual could not have chosen differently.
