Evaluation of the “Illusion of Control”: Type of Feedback, Outcome Sequence, and Number of Trials Among Regular and Occasional Gamblers

Summary

Within the framework of Langer's theory of the “illusion of control,” three experiments were conducted in order to clarify factors affecting the acquisition and maintenance of gambling behavior. The first (n = 150) evaluated the effect of partial and continuous feedback on the perception of control in different sequences of the outcomes. The second (n = 64) assessed the type of feedback and the number of trials as facilitating factors of the illusion of control. The third (n = 21) used regular gamblers in order to evaluate the effect of sequence of outcomes. The results indicate that Ss generally did not report an illusion of control towards the experimental task. These conclusions do not replicate Langer's findings which showed that under certain conditions S s attribute to their personal skills the outcomes of the risky task of gambling.