Exploring Free Will Beliefs and Attitudes Towards Punishment in Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom

Beliefs about free will shape how individuals judge moral responsibility and support different forms of punishment. Most research has relied on single-country samples, limiting understanding of how cultural and institutional contexts might influence these beliefs. Therefore, this study compared free will beliefs and punitive attitudes across three nations with contrasting justice traditions: Norway and Sweden, which emphasise rehabilitation and are more compatible with determinist perspectives, and the United Kingdom, which has historically incorporated stronger libertarian and retributive elements. A total of 328 participants (98 Norwegian, 115 Swedish, 115 British) completed measures of libertarian free will, determinism, and dualism, alongside a task assessing preferred severity of punishment for a hypothetical crime. The results showed that British participants scored higher on libertarian free will and dualism, whereas Norwegian and Swedish participants reported lower overall free will beliefs and selected less severe punishments. Across the full sample, stronger belief in free will was associated with harsher sentencing preferences, while associations involving determinism and dualism were more varied. These findings indicate that national context may play a role in shaping free will beliefs and punishment attitudes, suggesting that both cultural and institutional features could contribute to differences in how individuals judge responsibility.