Who is in control? (Image: Alessandro Cosmelli/Contrasto/Eyevine
鈥淚t means very little; 99 per cent of the brain鈥檚 work goes on outside our conscious awareness and is hardly the place to look for personal responsibility. Responsibility is a social phenomenon, not a neuroscientific one. The most reductionist account of the brain won鈥檛 change that reality.鈥�
Michael Gazzaniga SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind, University of California, Santa Barbara
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鈥淥ur unconscious influences basic features of what we see, or fail to see, when reacting in the spur of the moment. But we don鈥檛 always have to react in the spur of the moment. And we are responsible for what biases we bring to those moments. We have plenty of other times at which to reflect on what we want to be like, and to find ways to establish habits that we want to be automatic.鈥�
Holly Andersen Simon Fraser University, Canada
鈥淲e should welcome new neuroscientific insights about the unconscious sources of human actions at the same time as we reject the misleading hype that these discoveries negate the idea of individual responsibility.鈥�
Amy Gutmann Chair of the US Presidential Commission on the Study of Bioethical Issues
鈥淎side from identifying obvious pathologies 鈥� brain tumours and other conditions that can disrupt normal decision-making 鈥� neuroscience is not yet in a position to provide much guidance in particular cases of questionable responsibility. I don鈥檛 believe that scientists can 鈥榩in down the unconscious origins of many acts鈥� in any sense that matters in this context.鈥�
Daniel Dennett Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University, Massachusetts
鈥�How your unknown prejudices can dictate your actions in a crisis鈥� looks at how unconscious biases might influence split-second decisions
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淲ho鈥檚 in control?鈥�
