Illusion of control bias: what it is and how it affects us

Cognitive biases are deviations from “normal” mental processing that make us think irrationally in certain situations, creating a distortion of the causes and consequences of a situation.

In this article we will know one of them, the illusion of control bias, which appears especially in disorders such as pathological gambling or compulsive gambling. We are going to know its characteristics, why it appears and how it maintains the behavior of gambling in the individual.

• Related article: "Cognitive biases: discovering an interesting psychological effect"

Cognitive biases

A cognitive bias is a psychological effect that produces a deviation in mental processing, which leads to a distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation, or what we call in a general way "irrationality".

This irrationality appears on the basis of the interpretation of the available information., even if this leads us to illogical conclusions or the data are not related to each other.

The Illusion of Control Bias: Characteristics

The illusion of control bias, or illusion of control bias, was defined by psychologist Ellen Langer in 1975. It is the mistaken belief that one can perform some kind of action, or that has strategies to control the occurrence of events which are actually produced by chance. That is, the outcome of such events is actually independent of any variables present in the event conditions.

Thus, broadly speaking, we can talk about the bias of the illusion of control as the tendency of people of believing that they can control, or at least influence, outcomes over which they have no influence. More specifically, this bias has been found in pathological gambling, as we will see later.

Pathological gambling: characteristics

Pathological gambling, commonly called compulsive gambling, is considered a mental disorder, according to the DSM-5, which classifies it within addictive disorders not related to substances, for sharing many characteristics with drug addictions (withdrawal syndrome, dependence and tolerance).

For its part, the term addiction is defined as "loss of control, with intense urgency to seek and receive a drug, even if it produces adverse consequences."

In pathological gambling, the individual feel an irrepressible need to play, which ends up having a negative impact on his daily life and his functioning at a personal, social, family and academic or work level. Many of the players end up putting themselves and their families in debt, as well as losing money and property. They also turn to liars to hide their addiction and financial losses.

Illusion of control bias appears very frequently in pathological gambling. Especially, it appears in those conditions that the player himself can control, and he ends up thinking that he "has control over the situation, that" he will be able to earn more money if he sets his mind to it”, as if this depended on him, when in reality it did not, since everything is random or commonly called the result of a "luck".

Thus, the illusion of control bias is one of the most characteristic beliefs of these players.

Illusion of control in pathological gambling

Illusion of control bias favors player to keep playing despite the damage that this is causing; this occurs because the player "believes that he can control chance" and therefore the results, although not always consciously.

Also, gamers have more superstitious thoughts about the game than non-gamers, such biases and heuristics are not due to pathologies of thought, but can appear in any person subjected to certain conditions (such as those that appear in the game of random).

Authors like Chóliz, M. (2006) suggested that certain game conditions (for example, being actively involved in a task), favor the belief that one can have control over the outcome, despite the fact that we are facing random events (such as the game). This hypothesis was confirmed by studies on the subject.

Thus, as we have seen, the illusion of control bias favors the maintenance of pathological gambling in the player. But in addition to this bias, there are different reasons why a person maintains the behavior of gambling: for For example, the fact of forgetting problems (evasion), of obtaining profits or of compensating for the absence of relationships social.

All this causes a loss of control in the player, which in turn causes anxiety and depression. These states can lead the person to end up putting his life and functioning at risk, due to thoughts and suicidal behaviors in the despair and hopelessness phase, which appears in advanced stages of pathological gambling.

• You may be interested in: "Pathological gambling: causes and symptoms of gambling addiction"

Illusion of control hypothesis

Langer (1975) proposed a number of hypotheses to explain why the illusion of control bias appears. In his main hypothesis, he maintains that said phenomenon occurs when chance situations include elements typical of situations that can be controlled.

In various experimental studies Langer's hypothesis has been tested and has been demonstrated, both in laboratory situations and in natural situations. These elements that influence the appearance of bias are:

1. The chose

Following Langer's hypothesis, it follows that players will have more confidence in winning if can choose the numbers of a lottery that if they do not choose them, for example, since this entails a choice.

2. Familiarity stimulate and response

Players they will be more confident in winning if they can play a lottery that is familiar to them (vs. a new one).

3. The competition

On the other hand, the player will have a greater illusion of control if he plays against an opponent who is unsure of himself than against a sure one.

4. Active and passive participation

Finally, if the player, for example, can roll the dice himself instead of someone else (active participation), this will also encourage the illusion of control bias. On the other hand, you will also increase bias if you spend more time concentrating on the game (passive participation).

Bibliographic references:

• Langer, E.J. (1975). The illusion of control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 311-328.
• Bersabe, R. (1995). Cognitive biases in gambling: the illusion of control. Doctoral Thesis, Complutense University of Madrid
• Choliz, M. (2006). Gambling addiction: biases and heuristics involved in gambling. Spanish Magazine on Drug Addiction, 31(1) 173-184.
• cia, a. (2013). Addictions not related to substances (DSM-5, APA, 2013): a first step towards the inclusion of Behavioral Addictions in the current categorical classifications. Rev Neuropsiquiatr 76(4), 210-217.