A recent study of college students suggests that how your employees feel about their ability to make their own choices could shape the culture at your company. In the study, students were split into two groups. One group read a section from a book by Francis Crick (of DNA double helix fame) which claimed “that rational, high-minded people—including, according to Crick, most scientists—now recognize that actual free will is an illusion”. The other group was given the same book but “read a passage from a chapter on consciousness, which did not discuss free will.” The students were then asked to answer 20 math problems on a computer. They were told that the computer program had a glitch which caused the answer to appear on the screen after a few seconds, but that they could prevent the answers from appearing by pressing the spacebar.

The students who read that free will was an illusion cheated (by failing to prevent the answer from appearing) on average 14 out of 20 times, while those who read the other section only cheated an average of 9.5 times. It’s pretty clear that how we feel about our personal responsibility affects our choices. If we have a choice, if our honor and our reputation are in our own hands, we’re much more likely to behave ethically. If we feel as though it’s out of our hands, we simply don’t try as hard to do the right thing.

How do your employees feel about the choices they make at work? Do they feel empowered to make decisions? Do they know that they are personally responsible for making the right choice?