We make thousands of
decisions every day. We are constantly choosing what to think about, what to
eat, what to do, what to wear, what to say, and when to do all of these things.
Throughout childhood, we are taught that the choices we make are important.
While it is true that we make thousands of choices, and that many of these are
important, there is one question that remains unanswered: why do we do what we
do? If we choose to eat an ice cream cone, is it a simple and independent
decision, or are there factors that essentially make the choice for us? For
centuries, psychologists and philosophers have asked this question. Due to the
countless circumstances that make up who we are, it is likely impossible to
know for certain if free will truly exists. Free will is the ability to act at
one’s discretion. Free will implies that we make our own choices, which are
independent of other people or factors. The innumerable amount of biological,
environmental, and personal factors ultimately take away our free will, and
every decision that we make is a product of one of these factors.
We
are greatly affected by genetics. Not only do we inherit physical
characteristics or tendencies from our parents, but also neurological and
internal traits. As we discussed in class, Sigmund Freud believed that our
behavior was the result of unconscious desires, which could be genetics. Scientists
have run studies that indicate that genes can affect many aspects of our lives,
including political views, temperament, religion, and other things. This
genetic inheritance affects us in many ways. It affects how we view people and
who we associate ourselves with. Another biological factor that hugely affects
our decision-making process is our brain. Ben Libet, in 1985, experimented this
by analyzing people's brains as they made basic arm movements. He found that
many times, people’s brains had already made the signals to move the arm before
the person was even aware of it. He argued that our brain makes its own
decisions before we know about it (Schwartz).
Another
factor that greatly influences many decisions we make is our environment. As we
studied in class, B.F. Skinner believed that all of our behavior can be
calculated, especially by our environment (Schwartz). Besides genetics, our
family influences us in many other ways. If a child is born with two parents
who graduated from college, that child will likely have a similar goal from a
young age, and make life decisions accordingly. Similarly, if a child is born
to a one-parent family in poverty, they are likely to make certain decisions as
a result. Parents greatly affect how kids think about their life in the future.
Rules that parents give to their kids cause many kids to act in different ways.
Some teenagers might choose to do certain things simply because their parents
told them not to. Others may make decisions to obey their parents purely out of
fear. Additionally, everyone cares about social status. This affects us all, in
different ways. Some people choose what to wear or what music to listen to
based off what is trendy, and what will make them popular. Many people choose
not to voice their opinion out of fear that they might offend somebody. Most
people may not realize that these factors are literally making their decisions;
these factors influence people so much that they don’t consciously make
independent decisions.
When
I was 14, I played on my high school basketball team, and I loved being
involved. We had a successful team, and as a result, I enjoyed feeling popular
at school. My drive to fit in and be popular led me to start hanging out with
people that I would not have otherwise hung out with. Consequently, I began to
do things that I thought I would never do. I started treating people
differently, and I obsessed over my social life. One time, I told one of my
good friends about a party I planned on going to that weekend. He asked me,
“Will, do you actually want to go to that?” I shrugged off the question
initially. Then, later, I realized that I did not want to go to that party. I
evaluated my life and realized that I was not even making my own decisions-I
was simply going along with whatever was going on around me.
Another
factor that greatly influences many decisions is religion. Religion is
especially important because it reflects people’s innermost desires and moral
values. Religion can affect people’s decisions in a myriad of ways. Almost
always, a person’s religion is determined by their parents, and how they were
raised. Many people never make a conscious decision to be Catholic, Baptist, or
even Mormon. Even if people do choose what church to go to, that decision is
often based off of the words of another person, or what is socially popular.
Many teenagers are drawn to churches because of rock concerts and other elegant
activities. There are many people who are religious, and make choices to obey
what they are taught out of fear of punishment. This shows yet another motive
that prevents people from making their own decision. Religion, one of life’s
very important decisions, is affected by outside factors.
There
are thousands of decisions that we constantly have to make in our lives, and
thousands of factors that can influence every single one. As humans, we
consider these factors heavily, and let them affect us in our decision-making
process. These factors take away our free will, and allow the famous question
to continue being relevant: why do we do what we do?
No comments:
Post a Comment