1. An adoption study of human agency
Why not do an adoption?
Why do an adoption study?
Why do an adoption study of human agency?

2. Why not do an adoption study?
Polderman et al. (2015, Nature Genetics): Meta-analysis of 17,804 traits in 14,558,903 twin pairs in 2748 studies
Feasibility
Adoptive families are different

3. Why do an adoption study?
First law of behavioral genetics: Everything is heritable (Eric Turkheimer, 2000)
Families shape offspring psychology, at least for some traits

4. Adopted siblings: Genetically-unrelated individuals who were reared together
Shared
Environment
Sibling #1
Sibling #2

8. Why do an adoption study of human agency?
Adoptive parents are presented with a genetic puzzle
What would suboptimal parenting look like?
Adoptive sibling similarity might be minimized when adoptive parents are genetic essentialists
What would optimal parenting look like?
Maybe adoptive parents should be encouraged to foster agentic beliefs

9. MTurk Pilot Study Sample
Variable N
301
Age (Median)
25-34
% Male
56.8%
Years Education Mean
(SD)
14.8
(2.0)
Working Full-time (%)
69.9%

10. Free-will and Determinism Plus (FAD+) Scale
Free-will: 7 items (a = .83 )
People have complete control over the decisions they make
People are always at fault for their bad behavior
Scientific Determinism: 7 items (a =.72)
Your genes determine your future
Childhood environment will determine your success as an adult
Fatalistic Determinism: 5 items (a = .85)
No matter how hard you try, you can’t change the future
Whatever will be will be – there’s not much you can do about it
Unpredictability: 8 items (a = .74)
Chance events seem to be a major cause of human history
People are unpredictable
Reliabilities are based on our sample
Paulhus, D. L., & Carey, J. M. (2011). The FAD-Plus: Measuring Lay Beliefs Regarding Free Will and Related Constructs. Journal of Personality Assessment, 93(1),

11. Are non-philosophers predominantly compatibilists?
Free-Will
Scientific Determinism
Fatalistic Determinism
Unpredictability
---
.13
.02
-.17
.09
.01
-.20
.39
.19
-.03
.07
.28
Paulhus & Carey (2011) correlations above the diagonal; Mturk sample below the diagonal

12. Correlation of FAD+ scales with personality
***
*** p < .001; ** p < .01; * p < .05

13. Correlation of FAD+ scales with personality

14. Correlation of FAD+ scales with personality

15. Correlation of FAD+ scales with knowledge and beliefs about genetics

16. Conclusions
Beliefs about Free Will and Determinism are psychometrically distinct
Individuals endorse free will even in a deterministic world
Free Will and Determinism scales are weakly correlated
Free Will and Determinism scales are differentially correlated with other psychological traits
Some psychological traits are shaped by the home you grow up in, others are not
An adoption study of agentic beliefs could tell us:
Whether parents can shape agentic beliefs
Whether shaping agentic beliefs fosters the development of beneficial and detrimental traits