May 01 2009
Cognitive Priming and Free Will
A recent study on the influence of cognitive priming on financial decision-making resulted in the priming of my memory to recall a related study.
In the first, a group of investment advisors and accountants read an article either about a successful outcome to a risky investment or an opposite outcome. When asked to then rate a traded stock, those that had read the positive article rated the stock more highly than those that had read the negative. While the investors/accountants believed they were freely making an objective decision, their previous experience influenced their thinking without their awareness of it.
Another study found that the temperature of a beverage briefly held influenced a subject’s impression of a hypothetical person later read about and evaluated. In this clever experiment . . .
Williams [the author] enlisted the help of a confederate, who escorted the test subjects from the lobby of a psychology building and rode the elevator to the test area with them. The confederate carried a clipboard, two textbooks and a cup of hot or iced coffee and knew nothing of the hypothesis being tested. During the trip to the test area, the confederate asked the subject to hold the cup of coffee while she recorded their name and the time of their participation.
Simply holding a hot cup of coffee for a brief period caused the subjects to later rate an individual as more “warm.” Again, the person’s “free” thinking was influenced without their awareness by previous experience.
Which brings me to free will. If our previous experiences influence our behavior without our knowing it, how could we ever be fully confident that a decision was arrived at freely? Do our previous experiences not play a role in determining our feelings, thoughts and behavior?
On campus yesterday I read this “inspirational” bulletin board message:
Our lives are the sum total of our decisions.
The graphic was one of a road/highway. “Exercise you free will wisely” was the unstated motto.
Do we in fact freely choose what we do? Even when concentrating fully and of the mindset that we are freely choosing, can we truly? I don’t think so. The “road we travel” is determined, to a very significant degree, by the terrain of our innate personality/characteristics and the subsequent experiences that shape us.
