The project, headed by Professor Alexander W Cappelen, Associate Professor Hallgeir Sjåstad and Professor Bertil Tungodden, aims to exploit scientific synergies between economics and psychology.

Considerations of individual freedom and personal responsibility figure prominently in almost all spheres of society, from policy debates about income redistribution and government regulation of market transactions to interpersonal interactions in everyday life.

What constitutes a free choice? How much weight should be attached to considerations of individual freedom relative to other types of considerations? The FREE-project aims to address these questions and to create a unique platform for interdisciplinary experimental research on perceptions of free choice and how concerns for the freedom to choose affects behaviour and policy attitudes.

The core research team consist of three economists: Alexander Cappelen (NHH), Bertil Tungodden (NHH) and Björn Bartling (University of Zurich), and three psychologists: Hallgeir Sjåstad (NHH), Molly Crockett (Yale University) and Jay Van Bavel (New York University).

The project is funded by the Research Council of Norway and the program for Large Scale, Interdisciplinary Research Projects. The program is intended to advance the research front by providing support for researchers from different subject areas to work together to generate new knowledge that would not be possible to obtain without interdisciplinary cooperation. 

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