Thumbnail Image
Publication

Lost in the crowd: conformity as escape following disbelief in free will

Date
2018
Abstract
.Belief in free will is founded on the idea that people are responsible for their behavior. People who believe in free will derive meaning in life from these beliefs. Conformity refers to succumbing to external pressures and imitating others’ behaviors. Sometimes, conformity involves a loss of self‐awareness, which reduces perceived meaninglessness. We tested if disbelief in free will increases perceived meaninglessness and if people subsequently become more conformist to address this negative existential perception. We conducted three studies to test this hypothesis. In Study 1, experimentally induced disbelief in free will resulted in perceived meaninglessness. In Study 2, perceived meaninglessness correlated with conformity. Finally, in Study 3, perceived meaninglessness mediated the relationship between disbelief in free will and conformity, especially under high self‐awareness. We conclude that perceptions about meaning play a central role in the relationship between disbelief in free will and conformity.
Supervisor
Description
peer-reviewed
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Citation
European Journal of Social Psychology; 49 (3), pp. 503-520
Collections
Psychology
Show all metadata
Files
Thumbnail Image
Igou_2018_Lost.pdf
Adobe PDF, 584.62 KB
Keywords
free will, conformity, meaning, self-awareness, existential psychology
ULRR Identifiers
https://hdl.handle.net/10344/6975
 https://doi.org/10.34961/8234
Funding code
Funding Information
Sustainable Development Goals
External Link
Type
Article
Rights
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/
License