definition

Humans Have Shared/Plural Agency

Beyond the executive control systems of mammals that plan ahead and consider possibilities, humans evolved to be shared (plural) agents: when two people collaborate they form a joint agent with a shared goal, shared knowledge maintained through communication, and joint self-regulation, where shared agency is the behavioral collaboration and shared intentionality the underlying cognitive capacities enabling it.

definitionpending

Speaker

Michael Tomasello

Evidence Quote

when you and I are going hunting together collaboratively, we have a shared goal, we have a joint goal, we have shared knowledge about the situation... So we kind of make a shared agent

Source

225 | Michael Tomasello on The Social Origins of Cognition and AgencySean Carroll's Mindscape
Created: 6/13/2026, 12:05:28 AM

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