One way to think about free will is that it exists only as a belief. The more we believe in free will, the more it exists. The less we believe in it, the less it exists. “If you do call free will an illusion, it’s a useful illusion, right?” said Cory Clark, a professor of social psychology who is doing innovative research into how we think about freedom and responsibility. “Thinking through, ‘If I do X, Y will happen,’ is an important part of the process that leads to making better choices. If people thought they didn’t have to do that, they might not make good choices anymore.”
