Illusion of Control - The Positives of Self-Deception

We have a strong drive to control our environment; so strong that when we feel like losing control, such as in old age, it can shorten our days...

But control is more often than not illusory. Randomness and chance dictate daily events. The degree of control we can really exert is modest and so very often over-appreciated. But it can do us good in many situations; and I will try to focus on those here.

By formal definition, illusion of control refers to our tendency to overestimate our ability to control events; it often occurs when we feel a sense of control over situations and outcomes we demonstrably do not influence [1].

Together with optimism bias and illusory superiority, illusion of control is one of the positive illusions. It has been introduced to psychology by Ellen Langer in 1975 and it has been widely described and exemplified in Scout Plous' 1993 book The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making.

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This is the fifth part in my series on human irrationality. Here are the previous ones:

1. Our Irrational Selves - The Priming Effect
2. Our Irrational Selves - The Confirmation Bias
3. Things Make Sense in Retrospect - The Hindsight Bias
4. Following the Herd - The Bandwagon Effect

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Illusion of Control Bias

Examples and Evidence

To better understand our perception of control, try asking someone about their likelihood of being involved in a car accident. On average, they would attribute a lower chance for an accident to occur if they are driving and a higher chance for an accident to occur if they are in the passenger seat.

"A large body of evidence supports the illusion of control. Gambling, for example, would likely lose much of its appeal without people’s slightly altered perceptions of control. When gambling, people believe they can control chance events.

For example, studies have demonstrated people think they have more control over the outcome of a dice game if they throw the dice themselves than if someone else throws the dice for them, and they are less apt to sell a lottery ticket they chose than a ticket chosen by someone else (presumably because people errantly infer the odds of winning increase because they threw the dice or bought the ticket)."[2]

Other examples [3]:

• "you choose an apple which tastes delicious. You assume you are very skilled at choosing apples (when in fact the whole batch happens to be good today)."

• "you enter the lottery and win millions. You assume that this is (partly) a result of how good your lucky numbers are (in fact lotteries are totally random so you can’t influence them with the numbers you choose. Although most of us know and accept this, we still harbour an inkling that maybe it does matter which numbers we choose)."

Several theories have come in favor of the illusion of control bias. One is the self-regulation theory and it goes like this:

In your life, you are driven by goals and objectives (or, at least, I hope you are). Since you plan to reach those goals, you exert control over situations and your environment to reach those goals. When and if the plan fails mid-way, when you face sudden changes, and when you are in conditions of high uncertainty and chaos, you will seek to reassert control of the situation.

Some researchers in the field (Taylor and Brown) argue that the illusion of control is adaptive as it motivates you to persist in your pursuits when you might otherwise give up.

This looks good on paper and from my personal experience it is quite encountered in daily life. The thing is that this is mostly seen in highly driven, aggressive and goal oriented people. It is seen in those with high control (either real or coming out of the illusion of control). Depressed people are less likely to exert high control. They are prone to delegate their control to other entities; they often disempower themselves.

When illusion of control goes bad

Illusion of control asserts that we overestimate the degree of control we have over events in our lives. However, sometimes we can control a lot of what's happening to us.

Gino and colleagues, 2011 conducted a series of experiments for this matter and they found that when the subjects of the study actually had plenty of control over a situation, they were more likely to underestimate it. Say what?

Yes. If such findings can be replicated by other studies, they may reverse the well established idea that illusion of control is usually beneficial. As pointed out here:

"Applying for more jobs increases the chance of getting one, exercise does make you more healthy, buying a new car does make you poorer. All these are areas in which we have high levels of control but which we may well be assuming we don’t."

To put it differently, when you really have control, you underestimate how much of what you do matters.

How can we benefit from the Illusion of Control

It definitely doesn't feel good being out of control. We may fall into a state of learned helplessness by giving up when we may have some power to control events.

But is it good to be deluded by the illusion of control? As pointed out here:

• "On the positive side, perceiving unwarranted control leads people to experience positive emotions and try novel, challenging tasks.

• On the negative side, perceiving unwarranted control leads people to take foolish, unnecessary risks, especially in a gambling context."

We can benefit from the illusion of control as it may encourage us to take responsibility in our lives:

• when someone finds out they suffer from a disease, they often become more in control of the situation by religiously taking their medication and by becoming more healthy aware in terms of diet and exercise

• when patients in hospitals are able to self-administer medication, they usually give themselves lower doses than those prescribed, but they experience less or no pain. Think about it!

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Ending thoughts

When we feel in control of a situation, we're likely to take more action, even if the chances stand against us. Thus, illusion of control can be positive adaptive. Give me some!

As psychologist Jeremy Dean said:

"Would you apply for that job if you knew how little control you had over the decision? No. But if you never apply for any jobs, you can’t get them. So we pump ourselves up, polish our résumé and practice our interview technique."

I would end by saying that:

You must be aware of the existence of illusion of control. You are driven by it without conscious awareness.

You have to learn how to distinguish the illusion of control from real control.

Even though it may be overall positive, the illusion of control can be discouraging (you overestimate a positive outcome => you end up in a negative outcome).

You have to appreciate the degree of real control. As I said, when you really have control, you underestimate how much of what you do matters.

It's a never ending trade-off. A game. Play it rationally!

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#psychology #practical #self-deception

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Cristi Vlad, Self-Experimenter and Author