Aim: weakened free-will belief and cheating
Free will: a person chooses their behaviour and is responsible for it; determinism: behaviour is caused by forces outside their control. The aim: to investigate whether encouraging a belief that behaviour is determined, rather than freely chosen, increases cheating when given a private chance. Two traps: it did not test whether free will exists, and it did not survey beliefs — belief was manipulated by what participants read, then behaviour was measured.
Procedure: two read-then-cheat studies
Two studies, each a reading task then a private chance to cheat. Study 1 (30 students): read a free-will-is-illusion or neutral passage, then did arithmetic where a glitch showed the answer unless the space bar was pressed; cheating was how often they let it appear. Study 2 (122 students): read determinism, free-will or neutral statements, marked their own test and took a dollar per answer claimed correct from an envelope, unwatched; cheating was overpayment.
Findings: determinism cheated more
Split results from conclusions. Results: Study 1, the free-will-is-illusion group let the answer appear on more problems than the neutral group; Study 2, the determinism group overpaid, more than the other two; the reading also lowered stated belief in free will. Conclusions: belief in free will is not fixed — a short reading moves it; weakening it is followed by less moral behaviour; and comparing conditions supports a causal claim, not just a link.
Drawn from real examiner reports.
Getting the procedure of this study wrong
The procedure is the part candidates muddle. Three traps. They were not asked what they believed — belief was manipulated by what they read, which lets the study show cause. They were not told they could cheat — they were asked to press the space bar, or pay only for answers really earned. And the direction: the determinism condition cheated more, as the title says.
That candidates confuse the procedure of this study is recorded at June 2023 P2 Q19.
Free will is not licence for riots
Asked how free-will belief supports moral behaviour, many say people would do whatever they like — riots and chaos. That misses the mark. Creditworthy chain: free will means you control your actions; in control, the choice is yours, so you are responsible; the responsible choose to act morally. This study is that chain reversed: remove the belief, behaviour worsens.
That candidates argued free will causes riots and chaos, when the creditworthy route is being in control of your actions and therefore choosing to act morally, is recorded at June 2022 P2 Q15.
A result where a conclusion was asked
A result is what was observed; a conclusion is what the researchers infer. Result: students who read the anti-free-will passage let the answer appear on more problems. Conclusion: weakening a belief in free will is followed by less moral behaviour. Asked for a conclusion, candidates restate the result and score nothing. Say what the pattern means, not what it was.
A result offered where a conclusion was asked is recorded at June 2023 P2 Q1f and June 2024 P1 Q5a and Q11a.
Evaluation that would fit any study
Generic evaluation is a recorded loss on this study. It was a lab experiment so it lacks ecological validity fits any study and earns little. Tie it to this one: the task was pressing a space bar to stop a maths answer, far from real dishonesty; the sample was undergraduates; and the effect came minutes after one short passage, so nothing follows about a long-held belief.
That evaluation of this study is often generic is recorded at June 2023 P2 Q19.
Evaluating with no link to the scenario
On application items, evaluation with no link to the person scores zero: AO3 cannot be awarded without AO2. A criticism that never touches the scenario gets zero for both. And identification without justification is a label — name the point, justify it from what the study did, apply it, then the consequence. The name alone is not application.
That AO3 cannot be credited without AO2 is recorded at June 2023 P2 Q31, identification without justification at June 2024 P1 Q11b and Q15b, and the name alone is not application at June 2022 P1 Q4b.
What this study did not prove
Four wrong ideas. It proved free will does not exist — no, it moved a belief, measured a behaviour. It proved determinism is harmful — no, it measured one short passage on a small task; determinists are not dishonest. The cheaters were dishonest anyway — no, students were allocated to conditions, so neither group differs. Caught and told off — no, the chance seemed private.
Reaching the 7-9 band on the Assess
The 9-mark Assess splits AO1 3, AO2 3, AO3 3; the 7-9 band is missed for lack of AO3 and balance, and AO3 needs AO2. AO1: a couple of details, e.g. the glitch and envelope. AO2: use the scenario's own words. AO3: one point for, one against, justified. End on a judgement.
Use a detail only this study has
Procedure and application marks come from a detail only this study has: the two passages, the glitch and space bar, the self-marked test, the envelope, and the determinism group cheating more. A sentence that could fit any experiment earns little — check yours names one.
Write AO2 before AO3, in prose
Two habits. Write AO2 before AO3: opening with evaluation leaves the application thin, and since AO3 needs AO2, that can forfeit both. Write in continuous prose — bullets are not accepted. A conclusion is a judgement, not a restated result.
The specification asks for four things about this named study: its aim, its procedure, its findings (results and conclusions) and its strengths and weaknesses. Learn them as four blocks, because that is how the questions are set.
Free will — the idea that a person chooses their own behaviour and is responsible for it.
Determinism — the idea that behaviour is caused by forces outside the person's control, such as genes, brain chemistry or upbringing, so it could not have been otherwise.
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