Abstract

People’s belief in free will is important in determining the causes and responsibilities of human behavior. Over the past decades, there has been debate about belief in free will in the fields of neuroscience, philosophy, ethics, and criminal law. The Free Will and Determinism Scale (FAD-Plus; Paulhus & Carey, 2011) is a test tool that measures the components related to the belief in an individual's free will. This study conducted a confirmatory factor analysis of 1,000 ordinary people of various age groups and socio-economic backgrounds based on previous studies that conducted an exploratory factor analysis (Study 1). The author has secured the reliability and validity of a number of measures. Furthermore, it was examined how the sub-item of the FAD-Plus scale, ‘belief in free will,’ was related to correspondence bias and locus of control (Study 2). As a result of analyzing a total of 83 subjects, high belief in free will had a positive correlation with punishment judgment for negative behavior and internal attribution, but there was no significant relationship in reward judgment for positive behavior. Based on the study results, it was proven that the FAD-Plus is valid for the general public as well, and the relationship between belief in free will, attribution bias, locus of control and behavior judgment was examined. The limitations of this study, policy implications, and research directions are discussed.