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Summary
Among the various theories for the acquisition and retention of gambling behavior, that of the illusion of control states that in a situation involving chance people behave as they would in a situation involving skills: they perceive a certain amount of personal control over the outcome of the events. The present research examined the effect of participation and involvement as inductive variables of illusory control. Ninety S s were divided equally into six groups in a factorial design. The S or the experimenter threw the dice (active versus passive participation). Involvement was measured by the amount of money bet: a constant amount, a variable bet, or no money at all. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed no significant differences among groups. S s did not report an illusion of control in this situation of chance. These results cast doubt on the value of the illusion of control for explaining the acquisition and/or maintenance of gambling behavior.