Feeling in control when things go well: A meta-analytical account of how action-outcome valence shapes the implicit sense of agency

The sense of agency, the feeling of being the author of one's own actions and their outcomes, is a central aspect of self-awareness. Previous studies have typically relied on highly simplified laboratory tasks involving affectively neutral action–outcome pairs (e.g., tones or lights). While these paradigm are well controlled, they lack motivational and social significance. More recent work, however, has begun to examine how action-outcome influences agency-related processes. To synthetize this emerging evidence, we conducted a meta-analytic review of studies using intentional binding as a measure of implicit agency, focusing on the effects of outcome valence and including potential moderators such as predictability, volitional control, and outcome type. Results show that intentional binding reliably occurs regardless of whether the actions produce positive or negative outcomes, and the effect was significantly stronger when actions were freely chosen. However, implicit sense of agency was consistently enhanced for positive compared to negative outcomes, suggesting a self-serving bias in agency attribution. Yet, in some contexts - such as morally charged or physically aversive outcomes - this pattern was reversed, highlighting the possible role of contextual salience. These findings support cue integration models of agency and underscore the importance of studying agency in emotionally meaningful and ecologically valid contexts..