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control
You believe you control things that are purely random.
The illusion of control causes you to overestimate your influence over chance-based outcomes.
Whether rolling dice or choosing a lottery ticket, your brain interprets active participation as evidence of agency. The more you are involved in a process, the more you assume you can direct the result.
Participation makes you feel like an architect, even when you are just a spectator.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Ellen Langer, 1975, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- What the check found
- Ellen Langer's 1975 paper in JPSP is the seminal work on this topic, and the description accurately captures the cognitive phenomenon identified in her research.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.