"You deserve very little credit for being what you are - and remember, the people who come to you irritated, bigoted, unreasoning, deserve very little discredit for being what they are. Feel sorry for the poor devils. Pity them. Sympathize with them. Say
to yourself: "There, but for the grace of God, go I" " - Dale Carnegie, How to win friends and influence people ."
I think the official verdict is still out as far as Psychology is concerned, As far as im personally concerned every decision we make is influenced by our interaction with other people and the experience we draw from past-decisions. Yes im free to make a decision but there is no doubt that the decision I make is influenced by my past - both interactions with friends and strangers, my upbringing, past experiences with decisions. And that a certain set of decisions brought me to this stage.
Even if i were to approach a decisions critically and weigh cons/pros in a structured manner - I learnt to approach such a decision critically because of my past experiences or influences, and even then - the pros/cons will be weighted based on other past experiences/influences.
One fun perspective is that, You'd imagine due to there being no true randomness (outside of - potentially - 'Quantum Randomness'), this would validate the idea that there is no free will - only a outcome dictated by a cocktail of experiences/influences that - due to the complex nature of the influences & how they effect each other, is seemingly unpredictable. Another fun fact that could also validate that is - you'd note it
is possible to guess someones decision when you know enough of the experiences/influences. For example I know that
Baker93 would most likely be very angry if i punched him, because of personal experiences (Seeing fights occur, being in fights, upbringing, television, society tabboo on fighting etc.etc.).
Or quite simply to quote one of my favorite games & quotes -
'We all make choices, but in the end our choices make us'