To follow or not to follow: Influence of valence and consensus on the sense of agency

• Published in: Consciousness and cognition Vol. 102; p. 103347
• Main Authors: Reis, Moritz, Weller, Lisa, Muth, Felicitas V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.07.2022; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Agency ratings; Auditory Perception; Consensus; Emotions; Expectation; Humans; Intention; Intentional binding; Prospective Studies; Psychomotor Performance; Sense of agency; Temporal binding; Valence; Valence; Intentional binding; Agency ratings; Temporal binding; Expectation; Consensus; Sense of agency
• ISSN: 1053-8100; 1090-2376
• DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2022.103347

•Study on the sense of agency with naturalistic valence manipulation.•Explicit and implicit measures of agency are affected by different factors.•Positive compared to negative action outcomes increase explicit agency ratings.•Negative compared to positive action outcomes increase temporal binding.•Dissent compared to consensus increases agency ratings but not temporal binding. Advice from others influence our decisions. Irrespective of whether we follow them or not, we sometimes regret not having listened or blame the other for bad guidance. How does compliance with advice and outcome of the chosen action influence a person’s sense of agency? We conducted two online experiments using explicit and implicit measures of the sense of agency. Participants played a digital thimblerig and received hints towards either of the cups. Correct choices came with financial benefits whereas incorrect choices came with losses. Benefits increased explicit agency ratings compared to losses, so did dissent choices compared to advice compliance. Conversely, temporal binding as implicit measure for sense of agency was not affected by advice compliance while being larger for losses compared to benefits. We propose that consensus and outcome valence directly affect reflective aspects of the sense of agency, whereas the influence on prospective aspects depends on situational characteristics.