AUTHOR=Gooding Peter L. T. , Callan Mitchell J. , Hughes Gethin 

TITLE=The Association Between Believing in Free Will and Subjective Well-Being Is Confounded by a Sense of Personal Control

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00623

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00623

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>The extent to which an individual believes in free will is associated with a number of positive life outcomes, including their own subjective well-being. However, it is not known whether the belief that one has free will <italic>per se</italic> is uniquely associated with subjective well-being over and above potential confounding variables. We examined a sense of personal control as one such confound—specifically, whether the association between free will belief (FWB) and subjective well-being is based, in part, on the degree to which an individual feels a sense of personal control over their life. In Study, 1 trait-level belief in personal control significantly uniquely predicted satisfaction with life and stress, over and above the contribution of FWB. In Study 2, within-person daily fluctuations in stress and depression were not significantly predicted by daily changes in FWB over and above the contribution of personal control/choice. The findings provide new insight into the relationship between FWB and subjective well-being.</p>