Consciousness is far less powerful than we believed

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A new study has suggested that consciousness, which is the internal dialogue that seems to govern one's thoughts and actions, has less control than we believed.

SF State's Ezequiel Morsella's "Passive Frame Theory" suggests that the conscious mind is like an interpreter helping speakers of different languages communicate.

Morsella added that the interpreter presents the information but is not the one making any arguments or acting upon the knowledge that is shared. Similarly, the information people perceive in their consciousness is not created by conscious processes, nor is it reacted to by conscious processes.

According to Morsella's framework, the "free will" that people typically attribute to their conscious mind, the idea that our consciousness, as a "decider," guides us to a course of action, does not exist. Instead, consciousness only relays information to control "voluntary" action or goal-oriented movement involving the skeletal muscle system.

The study is published online by the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences.