On the feeling of doing: dysphoria and the implicit modulation of authorship ascription.
The experience of authorship arises when we feel that observed effects (e.g., the onset of a light) are caused by our own actions (e.g., pushing a switch). This study tested whether dysphoric persons' authorship ascription can be modulated implicitly in a situation in which the exclusivity of the cause of effects is ambiguous. In line with the idea that depressed individuals' self-schemata include general views of uncontrollability, in a subliminal priming task we observed that dysphoric (compared with nondysphoric) participants experienced lower authorship of action effects when the self-concept was primed. Priming the potential effects of an action just prior to their occurrence, however, increased experiences of authorship in all participants and eliminated the effect of self-concept priming on dysphoric participants' authorship experiences. These findings suggest that the human mental system seizes on a match between primed and actual action effect to establish a sense of authorship, even in a state of depression when persons have weak self-views of causing behavioral outcomes.
Aarts
Henk
H
Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, Utrecht University, PO BOX 80140, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands. h.aarts@fss.uu.nl
Wegner
Daniel M
DM
Dijksterhuis
Ap
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D007389:Internal-External Control; D012649:Self Concept; D013360:Subliminal Stimulation