Belief in free will and job success
Interesting post at Mind Hacks:
If you want to predict how well someone might perform in a new job, you might want to enquire about their views on whether we are free to choose our own actions.
A delightful study just published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science found that belief in free will predicted job performance better than conscientiousness, belief in influence over life events and a commitment to a ‘Protestant work ethic’ where diligent labour is seen as a benefit in itself.
Here’s the summary from the study’s abstract:
Do philosophic views affect job performance? The authors found that possessing a belief in free will predicted better career attitudes and actual job performance. The effect of free will beliefs on job performance indicators were over and above well-established predictors such as conscientiousness, locus of control, and Protestant work ethic. In Study 1, stronger belief in free will corresponded to more positive attitudes about expected career success. In Study 2, job performance was evaluated objectively and independently by a supervisor. Results indicated that employees who espoused free will beliefs were given better work performance evaluations than those who disbelieve in free will, presumably because belief in free will facilitates exerting control over one’s actions.
I thought pretty much everyone believed in free will. Is there a large group that disbelieves free will? (I suppose we couldn’t blame them for that belief, but still…)
When my daughter approached me with this issue after particularly mind-bending philosophy lecture, this is what I told her. It may be that determinism is true. But even if it is, it’s impossible to live as though it is. Whether it is true or not has no meaningful claim on our subsequent behavior.
scott
20 August 2010 at 11:24 am
And yet those who believe in free will do better on the job, which indicates that one’s belief (free will or determinism) does indeed affect job behavior and performance.
LeisureGuy
20 August 2010 at 11:29 am
Well I guess what I’m saying is that one should act as though it is, no matter what the philosophy prof says.
Are you familiar with Martin Seligman’s book Learned Optimism? If you are not, I think you would find it fascinating.
scott
20 August 2010 at 11:50 am
It’s one of my favorite books, one I frequently recommend. His descriptions of the various experiments—and what we learn from them—is indeed fascinating.
So far as acting on the belief that one has free will: I do not understand how one can avoid it. If you simply sit quietly and await some involuntary impulse that will, say, take you out of the chair and into the kitchen to do the dishes… well, I think you would wait a long, long time. Dishwashing, so far as I can tell, totally depends on free will.
LeisureGuy
20 August 2010 at 12:31 pm
Or at the very least, it will always FEEL like it does. Which was my point to my daughter.
scott
20 August 2010 at 12:33 pm
Wait a minute!! This is perfect! Example:
The Wife: “Why haven’t you cleaned up that kitchen?”
Me: “I don’t have free will. The situation is not of my choosing.”
LeisureGuy
20 August 2010 at 3:06 pm
Yeah right!
The Wife: “Well neither is this!” (chases Leisureguy around the house with a cast iron pan)
scott
20 August 2010 at 3:09 pm
I was always a fan of soft determinism — the school of thought that there is no free will but it would be socially non-functional/ detrimental to acknowledge that fact.
Tyd
20 August 2010 at 3:09 pm
In essence: “Don’t blame me! I don’t have free will!”
What can you say? “Yes, you do”? He’ll just say, “You had to say that.” Etc.
LeisureGuy
20 August 2010 at 3:10 pm
Love Scott’s idea of me chasing you around w/ a frying pan – would it work, d’you think?
the wife
20 August 2010 at 6:27 pm