Skinner once said that freedom is an illusion, but a valuable one (Skinner XXXXXXXXXXThink about some decisions you have made in your life. Have you ever made a decision that was contrary to what...

Skinner once said that freedom is an illusion, but a valuable one (Skinner 1971). Think about some decisions you have made in your life. Have you ever made a decision that was contrary to what other people expected of you? Why did you make that decision? Do you think this was a real choice, as Rogers would say, or could it be that you are simply unaware of the factors that determined your choice? If the latter, does that make freedom an illusion?

In humanistic terms, what we believe is as important as external reality. In Skinner’s terms, what we believe about freedom changes our behaviour. Some direct support for this comes from a recent experimental study (Vohs and Schooler 2008). In this research, encouraging students to believe in determinism led to more cheating; not cheating was related to beliefs about free will!