For Whom Does Determinism Undermine Moral Responsibility? Surveying the Conditions for Free Will Across Cultures.

Philosophers have long debated whether, if determinism is true, we should hold people morally responsible for their actions since in a deterministic universe, people are arguably not the ultimate source of their actions nor could they have done otherwise if initial conditions and the laws of nature are held fixed. To reveal how non-philosophers ordinarily reason about the conditions for free will, we conducted a cross-cultural and cross-linguistic survey (N = 5,268) spanning twenty countries and sixteen languages. Overall, participants tended to ascribe moral responsibility whether the perpetrator lacked sourcehood or alternate possibilities. However, for American, European, and Middle Eastern participants, being the ultimate source of one's actions promoted perceptions of free will and control as well as ascriptions of blame and punishment. By contrast, being the source of one's actions was not particularly salient to Asian participants. Finally, across cultures, participants exhibiting greater cognitive reflection were more likely to view free will as incompatible with causal determinism. We discuss these findings in light of documented cultural differences in the tendency toward dispositional versus situational attributions.

Collective References and Identity Threat among Lebanese and Lebanese-Armenians in the Context of Continuous Intergroup Conflict / Referencias Colectivas y Amenazas a la Identidad entre Libaneses y Libaneses-Armenios en el Contexto de Conflicto Intergrupal Continuo

Abstract How people deal with adversity, in terms of threats to their social or ethnic identity has been extensively investigated. However, most studies have focused on samples (e.g. minority groups) from prototypical Western contexts. It is unclear how individuals perceive and deal with identity threats within non-Western plural contexts characterized by intergroup conflict. We therefore assess whether self-affirmation by recalling a past success can buffer against identity threat in the plural, non-Western context of Lebanon. In two studies we investigate how threats are negotiated at a national (Lebanon) (Study 1) and ethnic minority (Armenian) level (Study 2). In Study 1, we show that in a context characterized by a history of intergroup conflict, a superordinate national identity is non-salient. When investigating the content of memories of a sectarian group in Study 2, we find a hypersalient and chronically accessible ethnic identity, a pattern specific to Armenian Lebanese. We suggest that this hyper-salience is employed as a spontaneous identity management strategy by a minority group coping with constant continuity threat. Our findings point to the importance of expanding the study of identity processes beyond the typically Western contexts and in turn, situating them within their larger socio-political and historical contexts.

Resumen Ha sido ampliamente investigado el cómo luchan las personas con la adversidad, en términos de amenazas a su identidad social o étnica. Sin embargo, muchos estudios se han enfocado en muestras prototípicas de contextos Occidentales (p.ej. grupos minoritarios). Es poco claro cómo los individuos perciben y luchan con amenazas a su identidad dentro de contextos plurales no-occidentales caracterizados por el conflicto intergrupal. Por ello, evaluamos si la auto-afirmación a través del recuerdo de un hecho pasado puede mediar en contra de la amenaza a la identidad en el contexto plural, no-occidental de Líbano. A través de dos estudios investigamos cómo las amenazas son negociadas a nivel nacional (Líbano) (Estudio 1) y a nivel de una minoría étnica (Armenia) (Estudio 2). En el estudio 1 se muestra que, en un contexto caracterizado por la historia de conflicto intergrupal, una identidad nacional superordinada es no-saliente. Cuando se investigó el contenido de las memorias de un sector del grupo en el estudio 2, se encontraron identidades étnicas híper-salientes y crónicamente accesibles, un patrón específico a los Libaneses-Armenios. Se sugiere que esta híper-saliencia sea empleada como una estrategia de manejo de identidad espontánea por un grupo minoritario que se enfrenta a una amenaza continua y constante. Los hallazgos señalan la importancia de ampliar el estudio de los procesos de identidad más allá de los contextos típicos Occidentales, y a su vez, situarlos dentro de contextos sociopolíticos e históricos más grandes.