Abstract
Sense of agency (SoA) is a feeling that one’s action affected the outer object. When one’s action and the outcome are associated, people feel the time interval is shorter (Intentional Binding: IB). IB is used as an implicit measure of the SoA. People have “self-serving bias,” that we show stronger IB (SoA) to positive outcomes of our actions compared to negative outcomes. However, self-serving bias is found inhibited in individuals with depression. Previous studies mainly use audio stimuli as the outcome, but rarely use visual stimuli which is more likely to be the feedback from others in real life, and the direct relation between self-serving bias in IB and depressive symptoms has not been investigated. In this study, we measured self-serving bias by IB to emotional faces and examined the relation with depressive scores. While the results supported the existence of self-serving bias, the relation with depression needs detailed discussion.
