I have to admit I don't really understand this. People would jump out of a window to prove that they had free will... why? I don't care. I don't believe I have free will but that hasn't affected me in the slightest. Is it really THAT traumatic to realise that you don't have it? What did you think it was beforehand, random events in the brain?

"Free will is a necessary part of our self-awareness"

Correct, or at leas the illusion of it. The reason the consciousness is aware of it's 'free will' is as follows: if we make a decision which leads to bad consequences, the brain vividly records the moment the decision was made. This is where we get the perception that we have chosen something. Later, we can recall this memory and tell ourselves to choose the other choice, because we can CONTRAST it with the original. If the memory of the 'choice' was not recorded and we just took what went for granted, there would be no way to contrast one choice with the other and as a result we would be more likely to make the same mistake again. This is why we have the illusion of free will.

I honestly don't believe that people are THAT reliant on their sense of choice. And, even if they are, that still doesn't prove free will. All it shows is that (for some reason) people are overly reliant on the illusion of choice and it causes great stress to be denied it.

Aionios