True, I’ll rephrase. If we do not have free will, would it be beneficial for our belief in free will to be destroyed? If you were a divine operator with humanity’s best interests at heart, would you set up the causal chain of events to one day reveal to humans that they do not have free will?
If we assume that locus of control is a proxy for the perception or belief in free-will, then belief in free-will does appear to have certain beneficial effects. But it seems like a moot point anyway because what was gonna happen was gonna happen anyway, right?
8th grade female physics students who were given “attribution retraining” found “significantly improved performances in physics” and favourable effects on motivation.
Ziegler, A., & Heller, K. A. (2000). Effects of an attribution retraining with female students gifted in physics. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 23(2), 217–243.
Among seventh graders in a, frankly euphemistically titled, “urban junior high school” researchers found support for an ascociation between locus of control and their academic achievement.
Diesterhaft, K., & Gerken, K. (1983). Self-Concept and Locus of Control as Related to Achievement of Junior High Students. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 1(4), 367-375. https://doi.org/10.1177/073428298300100406 (Original work published 1983)
Among widows under the age of 54, Socio Economic Status and Locus of Control were found to impact depression and life satisfaction “independently”. And that the more internal a locus of control was – the better life satisfaction and less chance these widowers had of depression.
Landau, R. (1995). Locus of control and socioeconomic status: Does internal locus of control reflect real resources and opportunities or personal coping abilities? Social Science & Medicine, 41(11), 1499–1505. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(95)00020-8
Personally, my pet theory is that the “Law of Attraction” probably is effective. Not because of any pseudo-Swedenborg/Platonic metaphysics about the nature of thought, but from a motivational perspective people who are optimistic will have a “greater surface area for success”, because they simply don’t give up that easily.
True, I’ll rephrase. If we do not have free will, would it be beneficial for our belief in free will to be destroyed? If you were a divine operator with humanity’s best interests at heart, would you set up the causal chain of events to one day reveal to humans that they do not have free will?
You would need to make sure that there is no misunderstanding. Otherwise you would be communicating something else than you intended.
So, considering that the debate on this topic is typically full of confusion, the answer is probably: no.
If we assume that locus of control is a proxy for the perception or belief in free-will, then belief in free-will does appear to have certain beneficial effects. But it seems like a moot point anyway because what was gonna happen was gonna happen anyway, right?
8th grade female physics students who were given “attribution retraining” found “significantly improved performances in physics” and favourable effects on motivation.
Ziegler, A., & Heller, K. A. (2000). Effects of an attribution retraining with female students gifted in physics. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 23(2), 217–243.
Among seventh graders in a, frankly euphemistically titled, “urban junior high school” researchers found support for an ascociation between locus of control and their academic achievement.
Diesterhaft, K., & Gerken, K. (1983). Self-Concept and Locus of Control as Related to Achievement of Junior High Students. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 1(4), 367-375. https://doi.org/10.1177/073428298300100406 (Original work published 1983)
Among widows under the age of 54, Socio Economic Status and Locus of Control were found to impact depression and life satisfaction “independently”. And that the more internal a locus of control was – the better life satisfaction and less chance these widowers had of depression.
Landau, R. (1995). Locus of control and socioeconomic status: Does internal locus of control reflect real resources and opportunities or personal coping abilities? Social Science & Medicine, 41(11), 1499–1505. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(95)00020-8
Personally, my pet theory is that the “Law of Attraction” probably is effective. Not because of any pseudo-Swedenborg/Platonic metaphysics about the nature of thought, but from a motivational perspective people who are optimistic will have a “greater surface area for success”, because they simply don’t give up that easily.