Free Will: A Psychological Adaptation

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Western civilization is filled with oppositional, competitive people; indeed, that temperament may have been essential to its creation. Such people liked being "determined" but not in two senses. Persistence, overcoming obstacles, defeating barriers are virtues. (They are also associated with liveliness, needing less sleep, and heightened reproductive activity, all commonly labeled as "mania.")

Being determined has a second meaning, that of being confined, rule directed, and the outcome of prior events. Determined people don't care for the second definition. We are a technically sophisticated culture but refuse to see ourselves as outcomes of physical principles. Irv Silverman (HBES list_serve, 6/15/98) remarked that Catholicism lately recognizes evolution but retains "Free Will." Such compartmented thinking has been a clue to the existence of psychological adaptations as in the case of cheater detectors and the varied dilemmas associated with mating. There should be little surprise in considering Free Will as a candidate for status as a psychological adaptation, that the survival benefits of belief in Free Will far outweigh the apathy and hopelessness that may accompany other, more fatalistic beliefs.

Williams (1966) listed several traits of adaptations. There is variability in their phenotypic expression, they have a heritable basis, their operation is associated with differential survival and reproductive outcomes, comparable systems -- even with different foundations -- exist in other species in order to meet comparable goals. There are likely several modules that work as an integrated unit, as defined by Barkley (1997).

To the extent that Free Will has properties of a psychological adaptation, then telling someone that they don't have it is equivalent to instructing a teenaged male not to think of women. Likewise, we might expect Free Will to support other psychological adaptations, perhaps those same adaptations that are most valued by determined people. Free Will, per "common sense" likely becomes the largest consideration in matters of personal movement, acquisition of resources, and choice of a mate. It would also be a factor in hierarchic disputes and negotiations. Free Will denotes an ultimate sort of power, that of taking action without restraint from the forces that glue the rest of nature together.

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