Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Do you really have free will?
Or is your brain making decisions before you even know about them?
In the 1980s, neuroscientist Benjamin Libet conducted a series of experiments that seemed to show the brain preparing for an action fractions of a second before participants consciously decided to make it. In other words, your unconscious mind may have started the process before your conscious mind catches up.
But there's a twist. Libet also found evidence that while you might not initiate every decision consciously, you may still have the power to stop it. He called this the brain's "veto power" - the ability to cancel an action before it's carried out.
So perhaps free will isn't about choosing what to do, but choosing what not to do.
Do you really have free will?
Or is your brain making decisions before you even know about them?
In the 1980s, neuroscientist Benjamin Libet conducted a series of experiments that seemed to show the brain preparing for an action fractions of a second before participants consciously decided to make it. In other words, your unconscious mind may have started the process before your conscious mind catches up.
But there's a twist. Libet also found evidence that while you might not initiate every decision consciously, you may still have the power to stop it. He called this the brain's "veto power" - the ability to cancel an action before it's carried out.
So perhaps free will isn't about choosing what to do, but choosing what not to do.
