Illusion of control: A meta-analytic review

Meta-analytic techniques were used to review studies of the illusion of control. Fifty-three experiments from 29 articles were included in the present review. Participants' awareness of the possibility that task outcomes were random, type of illusion measured type of situational variable, and type of control assessment were identified as possible moderator variables. Larger effect sizes were found in experiments that measured participants' perception of their ability to predict outcomes as opposed to participants' perception of their ability to control outcomes. Also, larger effects were obtained in experiments that used indirect, quantitative as opposed to direct assessments of the illusion of control. The illusion of control construct has been operationalized irt many different ways. These operationalizations converge on E. Langer's (1975) definition of illusory control, but many of them do not seem to assess the commonly used notion of control.