Is free-will an illusion?

The research says otherwise.

Studies done by psychologists Eleanor J. Gibson and Richard D. Walk have further explained the nature of this fear. One of their more famous studies is the "visual cliff". [a cliff covered by a panel of glass - the subject placed on the glass sees a cliff but cannot actually fall in it]

Thirty-six infants were tested in their experiments, ranging from six to fourteen months. Gibson and Walk found that when placed on the board, 27 of the infants would crawl on the shallow side when called by their mothers; only three ventured off the "edge" of the cliff. Many infants would crawl away from their mothers who were calling from the deep end, and some would cry because they couldn’t reach their mothers without crossing an apparent chasm. Some would pat the glass on the deep end, but even with this assurance would not crawl on the glass. These results, although unable to prove that this fear is innate, indicate that most human infants have well developed depth perception and are able to make the connection between depth and the danger that accompanies falling. [...]

Studies of nonhuman subjects support the theory that falling is an inborn fear. Gibson and Walk performed identical experiments with chicks, turtles, rats, kids, lambs, kittens, and puppies.[4] The results were similar to those of the human infants, although each animal behaved a little differently according to the characteristics of its species.

The chicks were tested less than 24 hours after birth. It suggested that depth perception develops quickly in chickens, as the chicks never made the "mistake" of walking off the "deep" side of the cliff. The kids and lambs were also tested as soon as they could stand on their own. During the experiment, no goat or lamb ever stepped onto the glass of the deep side. When placed there, the animals displayed typical behavior by going into a posture of defense, with their front legs rigid and their back legs limp.

Most of the time, I agree. Some times we base our decision on 'cost,' even at the risk of it being a bad choice, but we always don't have a 'choice.'

You decide that you can't compute a solution. You decide to toss a coin. You decide to apply the result of the toss. There's no escape.

I don't think so:

If you are familiar with research in developmental psychology, then the answer might seem obvious. In the 1960s, there was a lot of research done on the visual cliff, which was developed by Eleanor Gibson and her colleagues. The visual cliff involves a ledge with a checkerboard pattern. There is glass at the dropoff of the ledge, so that infants see the cliff, but do would not be hurt by stepping onto it. Infants who have first learned to crawl climb right out onto the cliff. Those with a few weeks of movement experience stop at the edge.

It seems straightforward to say that the infants stop at the edge, because they are afraid of falling. And for years, that was the standard way of talking about infants’ performance on the visual cliff.

The problem is that infants don’t really display a true fear reaction when they get to the edge of the cliff. They don’t climb out onto it, but they do spend a lot of time peering over the edge. They reach out and explore the space. They do not display fear on their faces. They do not cling to their parents.

Infants of that age can display fear. For example, when infants of that age are approached by strangers, they do cling to a familiar adult, have an increase in heart rate, and have facial expressions and make noises that are fearful. So, infants can feel fear, they just don’t seem to exhibit that fear to the cliff.

Instead, infants quickly discover that heights create situations in which something can be learned. For example, infants learn about ramps and stairs. Over time, they learn which stairs can be climbed up and down and which are too high. They learn what kinds of ramps are too steep to climb down. Work by Karen Adolph and her colleagues even demonstrates that infants react differently to ramps depending on whether they are wearing a vest with lead weights in it (which makes a ramp harder to descend) or with feathers in it (which has little effect on their movements).

Eventually, of course, many children do display some fear of heights. Some children may fall and learn their fear in that way. However, just watching someone else fall or even something else fall from a height may be enough to help children realize the dangers of falling from heights. But, this fear does not kick in until after children have had some opportunity to explore their environment.

Almost all of the research in this laboratory stems from the discovery that human infants, contrary to widespread opinions expressed in secondary sources, are not afraid of heights.

But scientists found out back in the 1960s that there was no clear link between how much a small child falls and how uncomfortable he or she is on the edge of a drop.

“If they were afraid of heights, you should just be afraid of heights. ... You shouldn’t see four different learning curves,” Adolph says.

Infants develop a fear of heights as a result of their experiences moving around their environments, according to new research.

To be considered instinctual, a behavior must: a) be automatic, b) be irresistible, c) occur at some point in development, d) be triggered by some event in the environment, e) occur in every member of the species, f) be unmodifiable, and g) govern behavior for which the organism needs no training