Preliminary evidence for a selective agency-boosting effect of psychosocial stress

Sense of Agency (SoA) arises from the perception of being in control of one’s own actions and their outcomes. Many contextual and individual difference variables have been found to influence the SoA. Here, we focused on elucidating the potential relationship between psychosocial stress and the SoA across two studies. Psychosocial stress was induced via the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and agency was assessed in a task involving production of a voluntary action that resulted in an auditory effect 100 ms, 400 ms or 700 ms later. In Study 1, we used an explicit self-reported measure of agency in the form of a perception of control rating, and in Study 2 we used an implicit measure of agency in the form of temporal estimates of the interval between an action and an effect, so called intentional binding (IB). The results of Study 1 (explicit) showed that undergoing the TSST relative to a control condition increased SoA for outcomes that occur after a 700 ms delay. However, this effect was weak and did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. In Study 2 (IB), temporal estimates in the stress condition were significantly shorter than those in the control condition, exclusively for action-effect time delays of 700 ms. We conclude that this increased IB for 700 ms delays after induction of psychosocial stress reflects a potential “stress-enabled agency boost”, and that such an agency boost might be associated with the fight-or-flight stress response. Directions for future research are suggested.