We first tested whether the intervention worked to decrease belief in Free Will.
We constructed a latent factor of Free Will Beliefs (Lfwb) to see if the intervention altered this latent variable.
This was be done with the following code:
missing are all (9999);
Analysis:
estimator = MLR;
ITERATIONS= 10000;
MODEL:
Lfwb BY fwb1 fwb2 fwb3 fwb4 fwb5;
Lfwb ON antifw;
Results
STDYX Standardization
Two-Tailed
Estimate S.E. Est./S.E. P-Value
LFWB BY
FWB1 0.790 0.025 31.921 0.000
FWB2 0.799 0.026 31.224 0.000
FWB3 0.688 0.030 23.138 0.000
FWB4 0.798 0.024 32.808 0.000
FWB5 0.757 0.030 25.583 0.000
LFWB ON
ANTIFW -0.128 0.038 -3.355 0.001
As we had a significant effect of the manipulation on Free Will Beliefs, we tested whether the manipulation also affected search for meaning in life, internal locus of control, and hope pathway beliefs. Each scale was constructed as a single latent factor and the two will be allowed to correlate.
This was done with the following code:
missing are all (9999);
Analysis:
estimator = MLR;
ITERATIONS= 10000;
MODEL:
Lsearchmlq BY mlqs1 mlqs2 mlqs3 mlqs4 mlqs5;
Lhopepath BY hope1 hope2 hope3 hop4;
Lsearchmlq ON antifw;
Lhopepath ON antifw;
Results
STDYX Standardization
Two-Tailed
Estimate S.E. Est./S.E. P-Value
LFWB BY
FWB1 0.790 0.023 34.034 0.000
FWB2 0.789 0.027 29.705 0.000
FWB3 0.699 0.028 24.608 0.000
FWB4 0.803 0.023 34.246 0.000
FWB5 0.752 0.030 25.337 0.000
LSEARCHM BY
MLQS1 0.849 0.015 55.786 0.000
MLQS2 0.872 0.014 63.364 0.000
MLQS3 0.834 0.020 42.447 0.000
MLQS4 0.889 0.012 76.204 0.000
MLQS5 0.900 0.010 85.926 0.000
LHOPEPAT BY
HOPE1 0.841 0.022 38.502 0.000
HOPE2 0.767 0.024 31.739 0.000
HOPE3 0.799 0.020 39.710 0.000
HOPE4 0.835 0.024 34.811 0.000
LLOCI BY
LOC1 0.519 0.037 13.910 0.000
LOC2 0.567 0.034 16.490 0.000
LOC3 0.757 0.023 32.783 0.000
LOC4 0.662 0.032 20.996 0.000
LOC5 0.634 0.033 19.007 0.000
LOC6 0.763 0.028 27.288 0.000
LOC7 0.635 0.033 19.031 0.000
LOC8 0.783 0.023 33.775 0.000
LOC9 0.525 0.044 11.948 0.000
LOC10 0.664 0.028 23.794 0.000
LOC11 0.572 0.038 15.027 0.000
LOC12 0.731 0.025 29.106 0.000
LOC13 0.557 0.035 15.713 0.000
LFWB ON
ANTIFW -0.128 0.038 -3.348 0.001
LSEARCHM ON
ANTIFW -0.019 0.038 -0.498 0.619
LHOPEPAT ON
ANTIFW -0.020 0.039 -0.507 0.612
LLOCI ON
ANTIFW 0.020 0.039 0.521 0.602
LSEARCHM WITH
LFWB 0.185 0.044 4.203 0.000
LHOPEPAT WITH
LFWB 0.458 0.045 10.249 0.000
LSEARCHMLQ 0.313 0.043 7.212 0.000
LLOCI WITH
LFWB 0.511 0.039 13.064 0.000
Thus, we were able to show that the video manipulation reduced belief in free will but did not alter search for meaning in life, locus of control, or hope pathways.
None of the causal effects from the manipulation to free will beliefs, search for meaning in life, internal locus of control, or hope pathways, were moderated by whether participants were religious (all *p*s > .23).
