The Illusion Of Control

Abstract

We present a new experimental method for studying the illusion of control in a gambling context, along with a new multi-item measure of the degree of perceived control. Responses to the measure were found to reflect a distinction between primary and secondary control – a distinction not recognised by traditional single-item measures. Furthermore, responses to the new measure were, in contrast to ratings on a concurrently administered traditional measure, found to be completely independent of the experienced reinforcement frequency. This finding highlights the purity of the newly-developed measure and calls into question the status of reinforcement frequency as a fundamental determinant of the degree of illusorily perceived control.