People view addiction as a source of diminished free will and moral responsibility. Yet, people are also sensitive to the personal histories of moral actors, including, perhaps, the way by which people became addicted. Across two studies (N = 806), we compare people’s moral intuitions about cases in which the actor becomes addicted by force or by choice. We find that perceptions of reduced free will partially mediate an association between choice (vs. no choice) in addiction and moral blame for a bad act (Study 1). We replicate this pattern and show that blame judgments are stronger when the bad act is related (vs. unrelated) to obtaining the addictive substance (Study 2). Our work is novel in demonstrating that lay people evince relatively nuanced intuitions about the role of free will in addiction and morality—they track direct and indirect paths to choices when making free will and blame judgments.

人们将成瘾视为自由意志和道德责任减弱的根源。然而，人们对道德行为者的个人历史也很敏感，也许包括人们上瘾的方式。在两项研究 (N = 806) 中，我们比较了人们对演员因强迫或选择上瘾的情况的道德直觉。我们发现，减少自由意志的看法部分地介导了成瘾中的选择（与没有选择）与不良行为的道德责备之间的关联（研究 1）。我们复制了这种模式，并表明当不良行为与获得成瘾物质有关（相对于无关）时，责备判断会更强（研究 2）。