Mini-workshop on the sense of agency in collaborative contexts

The sense of agency refers to the feeling of making things happen and is constitutive of our sense of selfhood. Social factors can lead to a fundamental change in the nature of the sense of agency, from self-agency to joint agency. The sense of agency is considered a key element when it comes to distinguishing our actions from those of others and, as such, it is a necessary condition to personal liability. If the sense of agency can indeed shift from an individual to a collective identity, what are the consequences for individual (and collective) responsibility? Furthermore, the notion of we-agency is also timely in light of current trends in digital technology, the result of which is a rapid change in the nature and scope of human-machine interaction. Indeed, recent technological developments allow users to interact with autonomous agents that can potentially become actual teammates. How we experience agency when we cooperate with artificial agents thus becomes critical.

Presentations and speakers

• “Determinants of the sense of joint agency”
  Elisabeth Pacherie, Directrice de Recherche CNRS, Institut Jean Nicod, ENS Paris
• “From Obedience to Resistance: Neuro-Cognitive and Social Mechanisms in Laboratory Settings and Post-Genocide Contexts”
  Emily Caspar, Associate Professor, Ghent University, Belgium
• “From Human-Machine Cooperation to Human-Technology Symbiosis: Towards a Deeper Integration”
  Jordan Navarro, Professor Université Lumière Lyon 2, Laboratoire EMC – Étude des Mécanismes Cognitifs
• Title to come
  Lionel Brunel, Professeur Université Paul-Valery Montpellier, Laboratoire Epsylon