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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Coping, emotion regulation, and psychopathology in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analysis and narrative review.
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“When self-efficacy and control are threatened in delegation experiences, consumers may employ different strategies to restore them, including increasing agency and seeking structure and boundaries (Landau, Kay, Whitson 2015).”
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“These compensatory strategies can be based on individuals’ own ability or agency to overcome lost control or on their reliance on external agencies, such as governments, gods, or leaders, to influence the outcome and restore a sense of agency or control on their behalf (27, 29).”
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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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