The DOI matches its Crossref record; 164 of the 164 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Compensatory control and the appeal of a structured world.
Open accessAbstract
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.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“the adoption of conspiracy theories as a means of reducing uncertainty [59]”
From Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective. (2025) · cites this paper as [59]
In the citing paper
“In addition to information seeking and fact-checking, people experiencing uncertainty-related worries and anxiety often engage in processes of compensatory control in an effort to imbue the world with order and predictability [59].”
From Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective. (2025) · cites this paper as [59]
Citations
Cites
Quantifying heterogeneity in a meta‐analysis
Higgins, J. P. T., & Thompson, S. G. (2002) · Statistics in Medicine · doi:10.1002/sim.1186 · Cited by 36,763
(1985) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 19,180
From Intentions to Actions: A Theory of Planned Behavior
Ajzen, I. (1985) · Action Control · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-69746-3_2 · Cited by 19,057
The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud
Freud, S. (1953) · Cited by 17,730
Duval, S., & Tweedie, R. (2000) · Biometrics · doi:10.1111/j.0006-341x.2000.00455.x · Cited by 14,099
Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change
Bandura, A. (1978) · Advances in Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/0146-6402(78)90002-4 · Cited by 10,586
A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality.
Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.95.2.256 · Cited by 9,745
(2000) · Cited by 9,198
High self-control predicts good adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success
Tangney, J. P., Baumeister, R. F., & Boone, A. L. (2004) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/j.0022-3506.2004.00263.x · Cited by 6,557
Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Bruνswik, E., Levinson, D. M., & Sandford, R. N. (2001) · SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781446220986.n8 · Cited by 6,460
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Compas, B. E., Jaser, S. S., Bettis, A. H., Watson, K. H., Gruhn, M. A., Dunbar, J. P., Williams, E., & Thigpen, J. C. (2017) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/bul0000110 · Cited by 1,555
Consumers and artificial intelligence: An experiential perspective
Puntoni, S., Reczek, R. W., Giesler, M., & Botti, S. (2021) · Journal of Marketing · doi:10.1177/0022242920953847 · Cited by 1,547
“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).”
Can we control it? Autonomous robots threaten human identity, uniqueness, safety, and resources
Złotowski, J. A., Yogeeswaran, K., & Bartneck, C. (2016) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2016.12.008 · Cited by 418
A Self‐Regulatory Model of Resource Scarcity
Cannon, C., Goldsmith, K., & Roux, C. (2019) · Journal of Consumer Psychology · doi:10.1002/jcpy.1035 · Cited by 280
When the appeal of a dominant leader is greater than a prestige leader
Kakkar, H., & Sivanathan, N. (2017) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1617711114 · Cited by 254
“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).”
Background
Metadata
- 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)
- Venue
- Psychological Bulletin
- Published
- 2015-05
- Volume
- 141
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 694-722
- ISSN
- 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1455
- 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
- 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
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
