The experiments had conditions set before testing so how can they be an exercise in free will?
The decision was to either press a button in the left hand or a button in the right hand. At the same time, the subject was watching a screen which flashed a series of letters in rapid succession. Subjects were asked to note which letter was being displayed on the screen at the moment that they made the decision to press one button or another.
It's not the same as one day waking up and deciding I will use my left hand instead of my right hand to brush my teeeeeeeth. Nobody is saying, do this experiment, you have a decision to make on which hand to use.
Few scientists are convinced that this is the death knell for free will, though. Marcel Brass, of the University of Ghent, Belgium, points out that the 60% figure is not that much better than chance, but adds, "It shows our decisions are influenced by stuff that happens in our brain before we decide. But it is not showing our decisions are completely pre-determined." Jeff Miller, of the University of Otago in New Zealand, agrees: "Finding that brain activity predicts a decision does not undermine free will." He explained the brain activity used to make the prediction could just be a leaning towards one choice or another, and that the final decision could still have been made consciously.Haynes himself accepts this possibility. "Maybe this early signal isn't a full decision, it's just like a nudge that you get, it's just biasing you one way, but its not really finally making up your mind."
