Illusion of control bias: what it is and how it affects us.

A cognitive bias whose effects are felt in many situations, especially in pathological gambling.

Cognitive biases are deviations from "normal" mental processing that cause us to think irrationally in the face of certain that make us think irrationally in certain situations, creating a distortion of the causes and consequences of a situation.

In this article we will learn about one of them, the illusion of control biaswhich appears especially in disorders such as pathological gambling or pathological gambling addiction. We will know its characteristics, why it appears and how it maintains the gambling behavior in the individual.

Cognitive biases

A cognitive bias is a psychological effect that produces a deviation in mental processing, leading to distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation, or what we generally call "irrationality".

This irrationality appears on the basis of the interpretation of the available information, even if it leads to illogical conclusions.even if it leads to illogical conclusions or the data are unrelated to each other.

The illusion of control bias: characteristics

The illusion of control, or illusion of control bias, was defined by psychologist Ellen Langer in 1975. It is the erroneous belief that one can perform some kind of action, or that one has strategies to control the occurrence of events that are actually produced by chance. That is, the outcome of such events is actually independent of any variable present in the conditions of the event.

Thus, broadly speaking, we can speak of the illusion of control bias as the tendency of people to believe that they can control, or at least influence, outcomes over which they have no influence. believe that they can control, or at least influence, outcomes over which they have no influence.. More specifically, this bias has been found in pathological gambling, as we will see below.

Pathological gambling: characteristics

Pathological gambling, commonly referred to as pathological gamblingis considered a mental disorder, according to the DSM-5, which classifies it as a non-substance related addictive disorder, as it shares many characteristics with drug addictions (withdrawal syndrome, dependence and tolerance).

For its part, the term addiction is defined as "the loss of control, with intense urgency to seek and receive a drug, even if it produces adverse consequences".

In pathological gambling, the individual feels an irrepressible need to gambleThis has a negative impact on their daily life and functioning on a personal, social, family, academic or work level. Many gamblers end up indebting themselves and their families, as well as losing money and property. They also become liars to hide their addiction and financial losses.

The illusion of control bias appears very frequently in pathological gambling. Especially, it appears in those conditions that the gambler himself can control, and he ends up thinking that "he has control over the situation, that "he will be able to win more money if he sets his mind to it", as if this depended on him, when in fact it does not, since everything is random or commonly called as a result of "luck".

Thus, the illusion of control bias is one of the most characteristic beliefs of these gamblers.

Illusion of control in pathological gambling

The illusion of control bias favors the player to continue playing despite the harm this is causing. despite the harm this is causing; this occurs because the gambler "believes he/she can control chance" and therefore outcomes, even if not always consciously.

In addition, gamblers have more superstitious thoughts about gambling than non-gamblers, such biases and heuristics are not due to pathologies of thought, but can appear in any person subjected to certain conditions (such as those that appear in gambling).

Authors such as Chóliz, M. (2006) suggested that certain conditions of the game (e.g., active involvement in a task), favor the belief that one can have control over the outcome, despite the fact that one is facingdespite the fact that one is faced with random events (such as gambling). This hypothesis was confirmed by studies in the field.

Thus, as we have seen, the bias of the illusion of control favors the maintenance of pathological gambling in the gambler. But in addition to this bias, there are different reasons why a person maintains the gambling behavior: for example, the fact of forgetting the problems (evasion), to obtain gains or to compensate for the absence of social relationships.

All this causes a loss of control in the gambler, which in turn generates anxiety and depression. generates anxiety and depression.. These states can lead the person to end up putting his life and functioning at risk, due to suicidal thoughts and behaviors in the phase of despair and hopelessness, which appears in advanced stages of pathological gambling.

Illusion of control hypothesis

Langer (1975) proposed a series of hypotheses to explain why the illusion of control bias appears. In his main hypothesis, he maintains that this phenomenon occurs when elements of situations that can be controlled are included in chance situations..

Langer's hypothesis has been tested and demonstrated in various experimental studies, both in laboratory situations and in natural situations. These elements that influence the occurrence of bias are:

1. Choice

As a result of Langer's hypothesis, it follows that players will be more confident of winning if they can choose the numbers of a lottery than if they do not choose them, for example, since this involves a choice.

2. Stimulus and response familiarity

Players will be more will be more confident of winning if they can play a lottery that is familiar to them (vs. a novel one). (vs. a novel one).

3. Competition

On the other hand, the player will have more illusion of control if he/she plays against an unsure opponent than a confident one.

4. Active and passive participation

Finally, if the player, for example, can roll the dice himself instead of someone else (active participation), this will also encourage the control illusion bias. On the other hand, it will also increase the bias if he spends more time concentrating on the game (passive participation).

Bibliographical references:

• Langer, E.J. (1975). The illusion of control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 311-328.
• Bersabé, R. (1995). Cognitive biases in gambling: the illusion of control. Doctoral dissertation, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
• Chóliz, M. (2006). Gambling addiction: biases and heuristics involved in gambling. Revista Española de Drogodependencias, 31(1) 173-184.
• Cía, A. (2013). Non-substance addictions (DSM-5, APA, 2013): a first step towards the inclusion of Behavioral Addictions in current categorical classifications. Rev Neuropsychiatr 76(4), 210-217.