These are the latest result from our research in our lab:
The sense of agency changes in motivational states dependent on personality traits
We all have experienced the heat of the moment and maybe feeling as though we lost the control over what we did or didn’t even consider the consequences at that moment. We investigated how our feeling of control, our sense of agency, is affected by our motivations, especially sexual arousal and pleasure and examined the effects of these states dependent on personality traits such as psychopathy and high anxiety. Participants watched short videos showing a pornographic or romantic scene while being in an eye tracker and we observed their heart rate and skin conductance as measures of their motivational response. Our results showed that the feeling of control over actions in sexual arousal was still intact in individuals with higher psychopathic traits, however, the link of awareness of consequences following these actions vanished completely. Individuals with high anxiety mirrored this pattern in the opposite direction, the link between actions and consequences was strengthened but the feeling of control over actions was reduced in sexual arousal and pleasure. Our findings highlight that the feeling of control and the awareness of consequences are two different processes that can diverge within one individual highly motivational states.
This study was done by Anna Render and the results are currently in the publication process.
[updated 21/12/2020]
We all have experienced the heat of the moment and maybe feeling as though we lost the control over what we did or didn’t even consider the consequences at that moment. We investigated how our feeling of control, our sense of agency, is affected by our motivations, especially sexual arousal and pleasure and examined the effects of these states dependent on personality traits such as psychopathy and high anxiety. Participants watched short videos showing a pornographic or romantic scene while being in an eye tracker and we observed their heart rate and skin conductance as measures of their motivational response. Our results showed that the feeling of control over actions in sexual arousal was still intact in individuals with higher psychopathic traits, however, the link of awareness of consequences following these actions vanished completely. Individuals with high anxiety mirrored this pattern in the opposite direction, the link between actions and consequences was strengthened but the feeling of control over actions was reduced in sexual arousal and pleasure. Our findings highlight that the feeling of control and the awareness of consequences are two different processes that can diverge within one individual highly motivational states.
This study was done by Anna Render and the results are currently in the publication process.
[updated 21/12/2020]
