Oddly Wired
← all facts
emotion

You perform worse when you feel forced into a task.

Research into learned helplessness shows that repeated exposure to uncontrollable situations leads to subsequent passive behavior, even when control is regained.

If you experience a scenario where your actions have no impact on the outcome, you develop an expectation of future futility. This reduces the motivation to exert effort even in solvable situations.

Past feelings of powerlessness can sabotage your current ability to act.

Where this comes from

Study
Seligman and Maier, 1967, Journal of Experimental Psychology
What the check found
The claim accurately summarizes the foundational Seligman and Maier (1967) finding published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology regarding uncontrollable stimuli and subsequent escape failure.
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.