Prime-Induced Illusion of Control: The influence of unconscious priming on self-initiated actions and the role of regression to the mean

Abstract To what degree human cognition is influenced by subliminal stimuli is a controversial empirical question. One striking example was reported by Linser and Goschke (2007): participants overestimated how much control they had over objectively uncontrollable stimuli when masked congruent primes were presented immediately before the action. Critically, however, unawareness of the masked primes was established by post hoc data selection. In our preregistered study we sought to explore these findings while examining prime visibility prior to the main experiment so that each participant underwent both visible and non-visible conditions. In Experiment 1, including semantic primes, N = 39 participants adjusted prime visibility by individually modifying prime contrast and judged their subjective experience of control over the effect-stimulus' identity based on their key-presses, using a rating scale that ranged from 0% (no control) to 100% (complete control). Contrary to Linser and Goschke (2007)'s findings, this experiment demonstrated that predictive information influenced the experience of agency only when primes were consciously processed. In Experiment 2, utilizing symbolic (arrow) primes and incorporating an inter-stimulus interval of 64ms to adjust prime awareness, N = 35 participants had to rate their feeling of control over the effect-stimulus’ identity during a forced-choice paradigm. The results revealed no significant influence of subliminal priming on agency perceptions. In summary, this study implies that unconscious stimuli may not exert a substantial influence on the conscious experience of agency, underscoring the need for careful consideration of methodological aspects and experimental design's impact on observed phenomena.