The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward

by Daniel H. Pink

Just 5 percent of the sample disagreed with both propositions. Those people said they didn’t have free will and that things didn’t happen for a reason. Call this tiny cohort the nihilists. Meanwhile, 10 percent believed they exercised free will while rejecting the idea that events unfold for a purpose. Call this group the individualists. Another 10 percent held the reverse view. Free will was a myth and everything happened for a reason, they said. These are the fatalists. But the largest group by far—three out of four Americans in the survey—maintained both that they have free will and that most things happen for a reason, two beliefs that seem to contradict each other. What to call this mystifying group? I thought about it awhile. And after careful consideration, the name I’ve chosen to assign them is . . . the humans.