title: 'Irresponsible and a disservice': the integrity of social psychology turns on the free will dilemma.
abstract: Over the last few years, a number of works have been published asserting both the putative prosocial benefits of belief in free will and the possible dangers of disclosing doubts about the existence of free will. Although concerns have been raised over the disservice of keeping such doubts from the public, this does not highlight the full danger that is presented by social psychology's newly found interest in the 'hard problem' of human free will. Almost all of the work on free will published to date by social psychologists appears methodologically flawed, misrepresents the state of academic knowledge, and risks linking social psychology with the irrational.
authors.affiliation: james.miles@alumni.lse.ac.uk
authors.forename: James B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Miles
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D005610:Freedom; D006801:Humans; D009014:Morals; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D010684:Philosophy; D011057:Politics; D011593:Psychology, Social
references.citation: Psychol Sci. 2008 Jan;19(1):49-54
references.pmid: 18181791
references.citation: Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2009 Feb;35(2):260-8
references.pmid: 19141628