Abstract
In the Michotte task, a ball (X) moves toward a resting ball (Y). In the moment of contact, X stops und Y starts moving. Previous studies have shown that subjects tend to view X as the causal agent (“X launches Y”) rather than Y (“Y stops X”). Moreover, X tends to be attributed more force than Y (force asymmetry), which contradicts the laws of Newtonian mechanics. Recent theories of force asymmetry try to explain these findings as the result of an asymmetrical identification with either the (stronger) agent or the (weaker) patient of the causal interaction. We directly tested this assumption by manipulating attributions of causal agency while holding the properties of the causal interaction constant across conditions. In contrast to previous accounts, we found that force judgments stayed invariant across conditions in which assignments of causal agency shifted from X to Y and that even those subjects who chose Y as the causal agent gave invariantly higher force ratings to X. These results suggest that causal agency and the perception of force are conceptually independent of each other. Different possible explanations are discussed.
Highlights
In the Michotte task, a ball (X) moves toward a resting ball (Y)
Observers typically describe this scenario as a case in which X launched Y (White, 2006) indicating that X is perceived as the causal agent and Y as the causal patient
According to Newtonian mechanics, the physical interaction between two objects X and Y is perfectly symmetric, and the force that X exerts on Y in the moment of collision is equal in magnitude to the counterforce that Y exerts on X
Summary
In the Michotte task, a ball (X) moves toward a resting ball (Y). In the moment of contact, X stops und Y starts moving. Recent theories of force asymmetry try to explain these findings as the result of an asymmetrical identification with either the (stronger) agent or the (weaker) patient of the causal interaction. X stops and Y starts moving with the same velocity and direction as X before (see Fig. 1, upper set of pictures, for an illustration) Observers typically describe this scenario as a case in which X launched Y (White, 2006) indicating that X is perceived as the causal agent and Y as the causal patient. We are going to use the terms causal agent and causal patient to distinguish between these different causal roles, but others have suggested a slightly different terminology, for example, cause object and effect object (White, 2006, 2009, 2012a), situational agent and situational patient (e.g., Muentener & Carey, 2010), agentive role and receptive role (e.g., Saxe, Tzelnic, & Carey, 2007), antagonist
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