Higher-order volitions are potentially more often guided by long-term beliefs and reasoning.
The concept of higher-order volitions was introduced by Harry Frankfurt, who used it to explain free will independently of determinism, of the thesis that what happens in the world is determined by predictable natural laws, which is however made implausible by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and resulting quantum noise.
But even if the world were governed by such laws, one could be free in the sense that higher-order volitions determined the primacy of first-order desires.
[2] The philosopher John Locke already claimed that free will was the ability to stop before making a decision, to consider what would be best to do, and the ability to decide and act based on the outcome of that thinking, which could be seen as equivalent to forming a higher-order volition.
[3] Locke argues that if the will were determined by the perceived greater good, every agent would be consistently focused on the attainment of "the infinite eternal Joys of Heaven",[3] which consequently would be the topmost higher-order voliton to win Pascal's wager, corresponding to the drug addict's desire to survive his drug addiction.