Feeling in Charge:

The sense of agency varies as a function of arousal and valence in negative emotional contexts. As yet, it is unknown whether the same is true for positive affect, and how inter-individual characteristics might predict these effects. Temporal binding, an implicit measure of the sense of agency, was measured in 59 participants before and after watching either an emotionally neutral film clip or a positive film clip with high or low arousal. Analyses included participants’ subjective affective ratings, physiological arousal (pupillometry, skin conductance, heart rate), and individual differences (arousal reactivity via psychopathy, eye blink rates). Linear mixed models showed that low arousal reactivity reduced the effect of high arousal on binding towards actions. Low arousal reactivity reversed the effects of high arousal on binding towards outcomes. These results provide evidence that individual differences influence the extent to which the sense of agency is affected by positive emotional states.