Beliefs about action and willpower, shaped by discussion, causally alter behaviour such as cheating and persistence¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2012 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Students told free will is an illusion cheated more on a subsequent arithmetic test, and beliefs about willpower depletion or strengthening changed persistence after exertion. → Frith Chris D 2012

Evidence¶

Frith Chris D 2012¶

Frith Chris D. (2012). The role of metacognition in human social interactions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2012.0123

q2 · i? · review · r2

The review reports two experimental literatures: Vohs & Schooler's manipulation of free-will beliefs increasing cheating, and Job et al.'s experiments showing told beliefs about willpower (depletable versus strengthenable) changed persistence after exerting will.

"On a subsequent arithmetic test, these students were more likely to cheat than a group who had not been told anything about free will."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Learners' task-specific self-efficacy beliefs predict whether they initiate, persist through, and recover from difficulty on academic tasks. — a broader claim this one bears on
• Self-efficacy negatively correlates with cheating, but actual ability does not inversely correlate with dishonesty — related
• Academic procrastination and learned helplessness positively predict cheating tendency, while academic self-efficacy negatively predicts it among university students — related
• Attributing outcomes to Allah's will among some PSMTs functioned as probabilistic reasoning, not mere personalist belief — related
• Conspicuous talent does not reliably succeed on its own; success requires physical energy and willpower that gifted individuals often lack — related