You should read this! Perceiving and acting upon action primes influences one's sense of agency

Abstract

In two studies, we investigated the degree to which action primes, and acting upon those primes affect agency ratings. Participants performed left or right button-presses that generated tones, and were subsequently asked to indicate the degree to which they felt that they, instead of the computer, had caused the tones. Prior to button-presses, participants were subliminally or supraliminally primed with "left" or "right". Participants were free to press either button, and thus could perform prime-compatible or prime-incompatible actions. Results showed that incompatible subliminal primes lowered sense of agency compared to the effects of subliminal compatible primes. In contrast, supraliminal compatible primes lowered agency compared to incompatible primes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.