A SIMPLE insect can help us understand free will, and the lack of it. When a female digger wasp is ready to lay her eggs, she hunts down a cricket or similar prey, paralyses it with a sting, drags it ...

The question of whether we have free will–or whether our actions are determined by factors we don’t know about and can’t control–is an ancient one. It probably won’t be resolved any time soon.

Research has found that when you manipulate people to doubt free will, bad things happen – including cheating and aggression. But does it hold up?

Robert Sapolsky, a 66-year-old Stanford neurobiologist, has a controversial view on the nature of human existence: he doesn’t think “free will” exists. At all. A MacArthur “genius” grant recipient at ...

Does something like "free will" really exist? We often take it for granted, but philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists have debated the issue for decades—if not centuries. In his recent Ph.D.

Before epilepsy was understood to be a neurological condition, people believed it was caused by the moon, or by phlegm in the brain. They condemned seizures as evidence of witchcraft or demonic ...

Natalie Jones, PsyD, is a licensed psychotherapist and advisory board member for PS's Condition Center. So why is free will trending? It could just be your standard trend-cycle coincidence, but my ...

Free will is the idea that humans can make their own choices and determine their own fates. Is a person’s will free, or are people's lives in fact shaped by powers outside of their control? The ...

Neuroscientists who work on the human brain seldom mention free will. Most consider it a subject better left, at least for the time being, to philosophers. Meanwhile, their sights are set on ...