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Updated: May 13, 2026

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency
Published on: October 28, 2020
Disentangling the sense of ownership from the sense of fairness
Luca Tummolini1, Claudia Scorolli, Anna M Borghi
1Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italian National Research Council, 00185 Rome, Italy. luca.tummolini@istc.cnr.it
Abstract:
Both evolutionary and developmental research indicate that humans are adapted to respecting property rights, independently (and possibly orthogonally) of considerations of fairness. We offer evidence from psychological experiments suggesting that enforcing one’s rights and respecting others’ possessions are basic cognitive mechanisms automatically activated and grounded in humans’ sensory-motor system. This may entail an independent motivation that is more profound than considerations of fairness and impartiality.
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