Evaluations of and Intentions to Engage in Group and Individual Action and Inaction: Reduced Personal Agency in Group Behavior

People evaluate individual actions more positively than inactions, but the scientific literature is silent on the evaluations of group actions and inactions. Across five experiments (total N = 2,684; three preregistered), American adult participants reported the desirability of and intentions to engage in mundane actions (e.g., walking) and inactions (e.g., standing) carried out either individually or with others. Across these experiments, group actions were evaluated less positively than individual ones, which in turn led to weaker intentions to engage in them. The mechanism underlying these differences was that group behaviors (actions and inactions) were generally associated with a lower sense of personal agency than individual ones. The lower sense of agency undermined evaluations and intentions, but this path was significantly stronger for actions than inactions. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.