Cited by 479Social and Intergroup PsychologyDeath Anxiety and Social ExclusionFree Will and Agency

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Compensatory control and the appeal of a structured world.

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Landau, Mark J., Kay, Aaron C., Whitson, Jennifer A.·2015·Psychological Bulletin

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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.

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“This behavior is consistent with many 416 observations suggesting that when individuals experience situations that threaten or reduce their 417 personal control, they implement compensatory strategies to restore their perceived control to its 418 baseline level(50,51).”
Result
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Wang, K., dong, Z., & Hou, Y. (2023) · PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/pkjvz · Cited by 1
DEFENSE AGAINST DEFENSIVENESS: HOW IMPORTANT PERSONAL VALUES CAN PROMOTE MORE ADAPTIVE RESPONSES TO SEVERE ENVIRONMENTAL THREAT
Schuett, K. (2015) · Scholars Commons (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Structure-Seeking in the Sharing Economy
Davidson, A. (2017) · Spectrum Research Repository (Concordia University)
Politics and religion: commutable, conflicting, and collaborative systems for satisfying the need for order
Shepherd, S., & Kay, A. C. (2020) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-817204-9.00030-5
Self-citation
Fast and Slow
Beit‐Hallahmi, B. (2020) · Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion · doi:10.1558/jcsr.42183
Essays on the Dynamics of Hedonic Experience
Wei, M. (2018) · ERA: Education and Research Archive (University of Alberta) · doi:10.7939/r3k06xh09
Comment communiquer l’action par la sonorité des noms de marques ?
Khenfer, J., & Cuny, C. (2021) · Cairn.info · doi:10.3917/dm.101.0041
The consequences of anthropomorphic and teleological beliefs in a global pandemicPreprint
Roberts, A., Handley, S. J., & Polito, V. (2021) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/ewn65
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Nichts als die Wahrheit? Verschwörungsglaube und konspirationistisches Denken
(2021) · Soziologiemagazin · doi:10.3224/soz.v14i1
How will Autonomous Robots be Viewed? The Influence of Robot Autonomy on Human Psychological Perception
Liu, Y., & Liao, S. (2021) · International Conference on Robotics and Automation Engineering (ICRAE) · doi:10.1109/icrae53653.2021.9657786
Religion Explained
McCaffree, K. J. (2017) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-50262-5_2
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McCaffree, K. J. (2017) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-50262-5_3
Quantitative Meta-Analyses: A Review of Current Practice
Park, S.-Y. (2019) · American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting (AERA) · doi:10.3102/1436798
Exploring Parental Control and its Impact on Secondary Level Students’ Attitude Towards Studies
Ahmad, F. S. M. (2023) · Journal of contemporary teacher education · doi:10.58444/jcte.v6i1.728
JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY TEACHER EDUCATION (JCTE)
Editor.JCTE (2023) · Journal of contemporary teacher education · doi:10.58444/jcte.v6i1.934
コントロール欲求の個人差が音楽配信サービスへの心理的所有感に及ぼす影響
Iseki, S. (2023) · Japan Marketing Journal · doi:10.7222/marketing.2023.036
The Role of Structure-Seeking in Moral Punishment
Stanley, M. L., Huang, S., Marsh, E. J., & Kay, A. C. (2023) · Social Justice Research · doi:10.1007/s11211-023-00416-8
“Our series of studies were motivated by the fact that a critical component of perceived structure is the belief that the world around us unfolds according to predictable if-then contingencies (Landau et al., 2015).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citation
The Effect of Asymmetric Intersexual Selection Power Perception on the Choice Deferral Behavior of Men and Women
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“When the sources of decreased perceived control cannot be controlled, such as disease outbreaks, middle-aged women will try to enhance their control in other areas, known as a compensatory control strategy (Landau et al., 2015).”
Background
THE ALTERNATE HISTORY OF THE 1918 FLU AS A CONSPIRACY IN DON’T NOD’S VAMPYR
Haj’jari, M.-J., & Azadanipour, M. (2024) · Epiphany · doi:10.21533/epiphany.v16i1.430
Your First Leadership Job: Relational Uncertainty and Leadership BehaviorsPreprint
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Self-Control, Openness, Personal Need for Structure and Compensatory Control Change: A Serial Mediation Investigation
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“Consequently, individuals experiencing prolonged periods of low control tend to seek structure and consistency [10,15,16].”
Background

Authors: Landau, M. J., Kay, A. C., & Whitson, J. A.
Affiliations: University of Kansas (US)
Duke University (US)
The University of Texas at Austin (US)
ORCID: Landau, Mark J.
Kay, Aaron C.
Whitson, Jennifer A.
Venue: Psychological Bulletin
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Published: 2015-05
Volume: 141
Issue: 3
Pages: 694-722
ISSN: 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
1939-1455
DOI: 10.1037/a0038703
OpenAlex: W1980775666
Cited by: 479
References: 164
Citations by year: 2026: 58 · 2025: 65 · 2024: 63 · 2023: 57 · 2022: 54 · 2021: 47 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 31 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 6
FWCI: 82.75
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: hybrid
doi.org
Licence: other-oa
www.apa.org/pubs/journals/resources/open-access.aspx (am, 291 d)
Locations: Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion, other-oa)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders: National Science Foundation (BCS-1222047)
Social Science and Humanities Council of Canada
Topics: Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Free Will and Agency
Keywords: perceived control, control motivation, pattern recognition, causal reasoning, individual differences, situational moderators
MeSH terms: Defense Mechanisms, Humans, Meta-Analysis as Topic

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Compensatory control and the appeal of a structured world.

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