Agency of others

This project explores whether intentional binding—an effect that reflects our experience of having control over our actions—also occurs when we observe others performing an action.

Sense of agency (SoA) is defined as the subjective experience of being in control of our own actions. This attribution of control underpins every action human beings conduct in the world and is a vital aspect of the experience of being human.

This project, conducted together with Ludwig Lundstedt and Erik Hallberg and led by Andreas Kalckert (University of Skövde) seeks to address whether intentional binding (IB), a proxy of SoA, can be found during observation of other-generated actions.

This is done by investigating the current state of research in the field with a systematic literature review.

Past studies are inconclusive in regards to what factors play into the formation of SoA and the motivation behind this project is to give a clear conclusion regarding IB from observed actions.

This project will also provide a discussion on theories that best explain this phenomenon, the neural evidence behind action observation, and what implications the findings could have for SoA as a whole.