Freedom of choice in decision-making: Introspecting the cause of our actions

Context of the research

Understanding the causes of human behaviour is the defining aim of scientific psychology. Only recently however, psychologists have begun to investigate the cognitive mechanisms by which people evaluate their own decisions and choices. For example, studies on confidence judgments have shed light on the inter-individual differences leading some people to fail to change their minds, even when proven wrong. Surprisingly however, almost no previous research has used controlled laboratory conditions to investigate individuals' ability to introspect the cause of their actions and to detect which factors influence them when they are making a choice.

Failures of introspection however have major implications for autonomy. People may experience an illusory sense of control and independence even when their decisions are in fact manipulated. Our recent research has started to reveal the existence of such illusions. Preliminary results showed that people experience an increased sense of detachment and freedom when they contradict suggestions, mistaking opposition for being free. This "thrill of rebellion" effect, reminiscent of some teenage behaviours or some political radicalization movements, effectively confuses being contrarian with being independent. Such cognitive bias, if not identified as such, could potentially be misused as tools to control individual behaviour, raising important societal and ethical issues. Basic scientific research on how people introspect the reasons for their choices is thus essential.


Aims and objectives

This project investigates how, and to what extent, people are able to introspect the origins of their decisions. It relies on studying the relation between two measures (i) the objective dependence of our actions on external events, and (ii) our subjective experience of whether our actions depend on those events, or, alternatively, reflect our freedom from them. These questions are addressed through controlled experimental laboratory studies and neuroimaging of healthy adult volunteers.
This general aim is achieved through four specific objectives:
1. To determine whether people can accurately identify the reason for their decision when several potential sources of influence are present, and to determine the neural dynamics of this process.
2. To measure subjects' ability to voluntarily silence implicit and explicit suggestions and make choices free from external influence.
3. To determine how affective value and reward modulate the ability to detach from influence, and to investigate the neural correlates of voluntary detachment from incentives.
4. To quantify using controlled experimental measures, the value that people attribute to their subjective feeling of having freedom of choice.


Potential applications and benefits

"Liberty" is a near-universal popular cry, and a concept with enormous power to drive human action. This project delivers the first systematic laboratory investigation into the cognitive mechanisms underlying humans' introspection of the origin of their choices and the subjective feeling of being free in one's decisions and actions. Understanding these basic mechanisms would represent a major research contribution to cognitive psychology, social psychology, social policy and economics. There are important implications for society: new media offer powerful tools to influence individual decisions, often without people being aware of such manipulation. Therefore, the project should capture the interest of several sectors within wider society, particularly consumer behaviour and communication specialists. We plan to disseminate to and collaborate with policy groups to maximize positive societal impact of the research ideas. We will aim to translate our findings to the digital economy, e.g. through cognitive training programs aiming to enhance detection of factors influencing individual choice, and thus protect autonomy.