Periodic Reporting for period 1 - JAIG (Joint Agency in Groups)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-10-01 bis 2025-09-30
The sense of agency, the experience of being in control of one’s actions and their consequences, is a core component of human cognition and social life. While research has examined agency in individuals and dyads, much less is known about how it operates in larger groups or in interactions with mere objects. This is a critical gap at a time when collective action, both human–human and human–object, is increasingly central to work, governance, and everyday life.
The JAIG project set out to fill this gap by addressing three objectives:
1. Determine how joint agency changes with group size.
2. Test whether these effects differ for social agents (human-like) versus mere objects.
3. Identify how social role, leading vs. following influences, joint agency.
Across a series of controlled experiments, the project measured both implicit and explicit indicators of agency to capture multiple dimensions of the phenomenon.
The results demonstrate that the sense of agency scales with group size, particularly when interacting with social agents, and that leadership enhances agency while following reduces it.
The JAIG project set out to fill this gap by addressing three objectives:
1. Determine how joint agency changes with group size.
2. Test whether these effects differ for social agents (human-like) versus mere objects.
3. Identify how social role, leading vs. following influences, joint agency.
Across a series of controlled experiments, the project measured both implicit and explicit indicators of agency to capture multiple dimensions of the phenomenon.
The results demonstrate that the sense of agency scales with group size, particularly when interacting with social agents, and that leadership enhances agency while following reduces it.
The project addressed three research objectives:
1. Establish and elaborate the link between group size and joint agency.
2. Test whether these effects differ for social agents versus mere objects.
3. Identify how social role (leader vs. follower) influences joint agency.
Over the reporting period, these objectives were achieved through six experiments across multiple studies.
Experiments 1–4 (Galang et al., 2025, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General) demonstrated that the sense of agency increases with group size, with stronger effects for social agents compared to mere objects.
Experiments 4–6 (Nisanci, Formica, Brass, & Galang, in prep.) showed that leading a group enhances agency, while following reduces it.
All studies used pre-registered designs and included both implicit (e.g. intentional binding) and explicit (self-report) measures of agency. The work generated a substantial body of research outputs:
5 peer-reviewed publications, including in Cognition, Consciousness and Cognition, and Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
2 manuscripts under review and 6 in preparation.
Side projects related to the grant objectives, examining topics such as rule-breaking, imitation, social exclusion, and group dynamics, further extended the scientific impact.
1. Establish and elaborate the link between group size and joint agency.
2. Test whether these effects differ for social agents versus mere objects.
3. Identify how social role (leader vs. follower) influences joint agency.
Over the reporting period, these objectives were achieved through six experiments across multiple studies.
Experiments 1–4 (Galang et al., 2025, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General) demonstrated that the sense of agency increases with group size, with stronger effects for social agents compared to mere objects.
Experiments 4–6 (Nisanci, Formica, Brass, & Galang, in prep.) showed that leading a group enhances agency, while following reduces it.
All studies used pre-registered designs and included both implicit (e.g. intentional binding) and explicit (self-report) measures of agency. The work generated a substantial body of research outputs:
5 peer-reviewed publications, including in Cognition, Consciousness and Cognition, and Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
2 manuscripts under review and 6 in preparation.
Side projects related to the grant objectives, examining topics such as rule-breaking, imitation, social exclusion, and group dynamics, further extended the scientific impact.
This project advances the state of the art by moving beyond dyadic studies of the sense of agency to systematically investigate how it functions in larger groups and in interactions with mere objects. Previous work has been constrained by logistical and methodological limitations, producing only fragmentary insights into collective agency. The present research closes this gap through a series of controlled experiments that isolate the effects of group size, social context, and leadership roles on agency.