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Minimal conditions for the emergence of a vicarious sense of agency toward artificial agents

Resource type
Journal Article
Authors/contributors
Title
Minimal conditions for the emergence of a vicarious sense of agency toward artificial agents
Abstract
A Sense of Agency (SoA) is the feeling of being in control over own actions and their outcomes. However, people can also experience a “vicarious” SoA over the actions performed by other agents, including artificial agents. The present study aimed to understand the minimal conditions for vicarious SoA toward artificial agents. Specifically, we addressed whether vicarious SoA emerges when people have access only to the action effect (proximal and distal), i.e., when no motor action is executed. In addition, we manipulated the expectancy of the content of the distal effect of the action to check whether the proximal action effect is sufficient for the emergence of the vicarious SoA, or if this effect is due to the learned association between proximal and distal effects. In two experiments, participants performed an Intentional Binding (IB) task, where the IB effect was the behavioural measure of SoA. In the first experiment (Solo), participants judged the onset of self-generated tones, whereas in the second experiment, a new sample of participants judged the onset of tones produced by a computer via an automatically pressed button, i.e., a customized device designed to generate a keypress (proximal action effect) in the absence of an effector executing a keypress (no motor action). In both experiments, participants' neural activity was recorded via electroencephalography (EEG), to examine the N1 and P2 components as neural measures of SoA. Behavioural results across experiments showed that the IB effect always emerged, suggesting that the vicarious IB effect toward an artificial agent emerges when access to the proximal action effect is provided, even in the absence of the action itself. The neural results suggested that while individual (self) SoA seemed to partially rely on motor predictions indexed by the N1, vicarious SoA relies on later, more cognitive (although still predictive) processes indexed by the P2. Overall, these results suggest that individual and vicarious SoA, although behaviourally manifested through a similar IB effect, might – to some extent – rely on different neural mechanisms.
Publication
Cognition
Date
2026-02-01
Volume
267
Pages
106349
Journal Abbr
Cognition
Accessed
10/24/25, 1:24 PM
ISSN
0010-0277
Library Catalog
ScienceDirect
Citation
Roselli, C., Navare, U. P., Ciardo, F., De Tommaso, D., Kotz, S. A., & Wykowska, A. (2026). Minimal conditions for the emergence of a vicarious sense of agency toward artificial agents. Cognition, 267, 106349. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106349