Compensatory control and the appeal of a structured world.

Abstract

People are motivated to perceive themselves as having control over their lives. Consequently, they respond to events and cognitions that reduce control with compensatory strategies for restoring perceived control to baseline levels. Prior theory and research have documented 3 such strategies: bolstering personal agency, affiliating with external systems perceived to be acting on the self's behalf, and affirming clear contingencies between actions and outcomes within the context of reduced control (here termed specific structure). We propose a 4th strategy: affirming nonspecific structure, or seeking out and preferring simple, clear, and consistent interpretations of the social and physical environments. Formulating this claim suggests that people will respond to reduced control by affirming structured interpretations that are unrelated to the control-reducing condition, and even those that entail otherwise adverse outcomes (e.g., pessimistic health prospects). Section 1 lays the conceptual foundation for our review, situating the proposed phenomenon in the literatures on control motivation and threat-compensation mechanisms. Section 2 reviews studies that have demonstrated that trait and state variations in perceived control predict a wide range of epistemic structuring tendencies, including pattern recognition and causal reasoning. We posit that these tendencies reflect a common desire for a structured understanding of one's environment. Accordingly, a new meta-analysis spanning the reviewed studies (k = 55) revealed that control reduction predicts nonspecific structure affirmation with a moderate effect size (r = .25). Section 3 reviews research on individual differences and situational moderators of this effect. The discussion addresses the interplay of compensatory control strategies and practical implications.

Psychology, meaning making, and the study of worldviews: Beyond religion and non-religion.

“…One of the most reliable findings in social psychology is that humans are motivated to maintain frameworks that afford a sense of personal agency and value within a comprehensible world (Leary, 2005;Landau et al, 2015). These beliefs underpin the subjective sense of meaning in life (MIL), which may be regarded as a subjective indicator of a "properly tuned" worldview, in the sense that they represent the world as a place for goal-directed action (Peterson, 1999).…”

Scapegoats, silver bullets, and other pitfalls in the path to sustainability

“…Given the important role played by the public in many environmental governance decisions it would also be useful to draw more from social psychology, particularly in relation to public (rather than stakeholder) response to large-sale environmental uncertainties (e.g. Whitson, Galinsky, and Kay 2015;Kay et al 2009;Landau, Kay, and Whitson 2015). Several factors, including compensatory control mechanisms and group biases could generate considerable backlash against environmental governance even as we experience more and more environmental harm.…”

“…Preference for simple explanation of complex issues (like climate change) has also been documented (Landau, Kay, and Whitson 2015;Meadows 2008;Brock and Carpenter 2007;Kay et al 2009). At a smaller scale, participatory processes often fail to empower the marginalized because of resistance from those who are asked to relinquish influence or because the powerless are not really free to express their concerns when confronting the powerful (Avelino 2009).…”

Strategic Risk Management

“…For example, power has been found in numerous studies by McClelland and colleagues to be an important motivator (McClelland and Burnham, 2003). Deci and Ryan (1985), in contrast, point to the central role of needs for self-determination, which are easier to satisfy if one has an experience of choice and an influence over one's destiny (Deci and Ryan, 1985;Gagné and Deci, 2005; for similar thoughts within personal control theory see also Landau, Kay, and Whitson, 2015 Bourgeois, 1980;Schäffer and Willauer, 2003).…”

“…Through the exchanges with middle managers they learn about market trends, technological developments, or competitor moves that they likely have not been aware of since middle managers are often closer to the market (e.g., ). Yet, much evidence suggests that humans have an innate need to feel a sense of mastery in effecting change, in a desired direction, on the environments that they are in (e.g., De Charms, 1968;Friesen, Kay, Eibach, and Galinsky, 2014;Greenberger and Strasser, 1986;Landau et al, 2015;Thompson and Schlehofer, 2008). As a consequence, humans "normally respond to events and cognitions that reduce personal control with efforts to restore perceived control to baseline levels" (Landau et al, 2015: 694;Brehm, 1966;Wicklund, 1974).…”