← all facts
agency
You create stories to fill in missing information.
People consistently invent coherent motives for their random physical actions after the fact.
When participants' brains were stimulated to move a limb without their intention, they reported a conscious desire to perform the movement. The mind hates gaps in agency and generates an explanation to make sense of the behavior.
You are a narrator constantly explaining your body to yourself.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Wegner, 2002, The Illusion of Conscious Will
- What the check found
- The claim summarizes the central thesis of Wegner's 'The Illusion of Conscious Will,' which posits that conscious will is an interpreted outcome of unconscious processes.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.