Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30826847›Full record

ArticleExperimental brain research2019

I just lost it! Fear and anger reduce the sense of agency: a study using intentional binding.

Julia F Christensen, S Di Costa, B Beck, P Haggard

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Experimental brain research, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
22citing papers in PubMed
9.9field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

22 citing papers in PubMed, 127 citations in OpenAlex.

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  6. Financial stress and leadership behavior: The role of leader gender.Journal of occupational health psychology · 2024
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Julia F ChristensenInstitute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London (UCL), Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, UK. j.christensen@ucl.ac.uk.
S Di CostaInstitute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London (UCL), Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, UK.
B BeckInstitute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London (UCL), Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, UK.
P HaggardInstitute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London (UCL), Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, UK.
National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery · GBUniversity College London · GBUniversity of Kent · GB

Funding

AHRC Science in Culture 162746Economic and Social Research Council Professorial FellowshipEuropean Research Council Advanced Grant (HUMVOL grant agreement 323943)
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Two recent studies have demonstrated that increases in arousal states lead to an increase people's sense of agency, i.e., the subjective experience of controlling one's own voluntary actions (Minohara et al. in Front Psychol 7:1165, 2016; Wen et al. in Conscious Cogn 36:87-95, 2015). We here extend these findings by showing that arousal states with negative emotional valence, such as fear and anger, decrease sense of agency. Anger and fear are negative emotional states. Anecdotally, they are often invoked as reasons for losing control, and neuroscientific evidence confirms important effects on the brain's action control systems. Surprisingly, the subjective experience of acting in anger or fear has scarcely been investigated experimentally. Thus, the legal notion that these intense emotions may undermine normal voluntary control over actions and outcomes (the 'Loss of Control', a partial defence for murder) lacks any clear evidence base. In three laboratory experiments, we measured sense of agency using an implicit measure based on time perception (the "intentional binding" paradigm). These actions occurred in either an emotionally neutral condition, or in a fearful (experiments 1 and 2) or angry state (experiment 3). In line with our hypotheses, fear or anger reduced the subjective sense of control over an action outcome, even though the objective causal link between action and outcome remained the same. This gap between the objective facts of agency, and a reduced subjective experience of agency under emotional conditions, has important implications for society and law.

Indexed as

IntentionAdultAngerFearFemaleHumansMaleMotor ActivityYoung AdultAngerFearIntentional bindingLoss of controlSense of agency

Identifiers

PMID30826847
PMCPMC6477810
OpenAlexW2920352869

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.