The cultural roots of free will beliefs

How Singaporean and U.S. Children judge and explain possibilities for action in interpersonal contexts

Bibliographic Data

ID9790293
AuthorsNadia Chernyak (0000-0003-3061-0523, corresponding author), Carissa Kang (0000-0001-9840-6938, Cornell University), Talma Kushnir (0000-0002-7656-6292, New York State University College of Human Ecology)
Year2019
Volume55
Issue4
Pages866-876
Publication date2019-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDevelopmental Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0012-1649 • E-ISSN: 1939-0599
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/dev0000670
PMID30652885
OpenAlexW2910981549
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited23

Making sense of human actions involves thinking about both endogenous influences (the internal mental states of agents) and exogenous influences (social, moral, and interpersonal constraints). Culture impacts how we weight the relative causal influence of these two influences. To examine these cultural influences in depth, we asked 147 4-11-year-olds in 3 cultural groups (Singaporean Chinese, Singaporean Malay, and U.S. Americans) about the possibility of acting on desires that go against social, moral, and interpersonal norms (i.e., "free will," defined as the ability to do otherwise). By age 4, U.S. children were more likely to endorse the freedom to act against norms than Singaporean children, and these cultural differences were more prevalent at older ages. Children's explanations mirrored between- and within-culture differences in causal beliefs about action: Both groups of Singaporean children referenced interdependent causes/consequences in their explanations than U.S. children, and Singaporean Malay children referenced more interdependent causes/consequences than Singaporean Chinese children. Singaporean children were more likely to elaborate on lack of free will by referencing punishment and/or having to seek permission from authorities, revealing a local cultural influence of growing up in an authoritarian society. These results underscore the critical role of culture in shaping how children understand mind, self, and action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Action (physics · Authoritarianism · Cultural diversity · Cultural group selection · Developmental psychology · Ethnic group · Interdependence · Interpersonal communication · Malay · PsycINFO · Social science · Sociology · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Child and Animal Learning Development · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology

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