Sense of agency during group control

Abstract

Previous work has shown that the sense of agency increases when commanding other people. However, such work has primarily been limited to dyads and little is known about how the sense of agency changes when the number of followers increases. Furthermore, it is unclear if commanding social agents versus mere physical events changes one's sense of agency. Four experiments, involving making virtual agents clap their hands and/or streetlamps turning on, explore this topic. All four experiments reveal a robust linear increase in explicit agency judgments with follower count; however, Experiment 4 shows that this effect is primarily related to the perceived proportion of responders, rather than absolute group size. Interestingly, Experiments 2 and 3 show that this effect is amplified with human-like avatars (relative to streetlamps), suggesting that there may be something special about commanding a group of human-like social agents. This research provides further insight to our understanding of the sense of agency in group dynamics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).