Buttons, boxes, and biases: The illusion and desire for control

Gitanksh Sethi

April 25, 2025

Have you ever found yourself desperately pressing the “close door” button in an elevator, convinced that your actions are speeding up the process? If so, you’ve experienced the illusion of control—a cognitive bias where individuals tend to believe they can control or at least influence outcomes that they demonstrably have no influence over. This common human tendency has major implications for understanding behavior and decision-making.

The desire for control refers to the degree to which individuals believe in their ability to control the events around them. People with a high desire for control are highly motivated to control the events in their lives, to make their own decisions and take on leadership roles in groups. In contrast, people with a low desire for control are less interested in exercising control over events and are more willing to allow others to make decisions and take on responsibility for group tasks. (Burger, 1979) The concept is significant as it affects decision-making, risk-taking, and overall behavior in various settings

This study measured it through a game that captures how much individuals value having control by presenting tradeoffs: players can give up part of their potential payout to make a decision themselves rather than letting someone else- or a computer- decide for them.

This game is relevant to gaining understanding in multiple fields:

Behavioral economics: In the field of behavioral economics, the desire for control game helps researchers understand how individuals make decisions related to risk, uncertainty, and control. It provides insights into preferences for control over outcomes and how these preferences influence economic behavior. (Fehr & Schmidt, 1999)
Management and leadership: In organizational settings, the game is relevant for studying leadership styles, employee motivation and team dynamics. It can help managers and leaders design strategies that align with employees’ preferences for control and autonomy. (Gagné & Deci, 2005)
Decision making: Understanding the desire for control is crucial in decision making contexts, such as financial decision-making, health-related choices, and career decisions. The game helps uncover factors that influence decision-making under uncertainty. (Loewenstein et al.,2001)
Cross-Cultural Studies: Researchers use the desire for control game in cross-cultural studies to explore cultural differences in preferences for control, risk-taking behavior, and attitudes toward uncertainty. It provides a framework for comparing psychological phenomena across different cultural contexts. (Hofstede, 2001)
Psychology: The game is used in psychology to study motivation, personality traits, and cognitive processes related to control. It helps psychologists understand how individuals perceive and respond to situations where they have varying degrees of control. (Ryan & Deci, 2000)

How has it been measured?

Researchers often rely on tools like the Desire for Control Scale developed by social psychologists Jerry M. Burger and Harris M. Cooper in 1979 to measure the desire for control (Moulding & Kyrios, 2007; Amoura et al., 2013; Myles et al., 2021). This self-reported measure consists of 20 items rated on a 7-point scale, asking participants to agree or disagree with statements reflecting their need to control events and outcomes. While useful, self-reported scales have limitations—they depend heavily on participants’ self-awareness and honesty and can be influenced by social desirability biases.

This is where experimental lab games, such as those we mentioned above, come into play as a powerful alternative. These games create controlled environments where researchers can observe behavior and manipulate variables to see how participants react to different scenarios. Unlike self-reported measures, lab games provide objective data on how people actually behave, rather than how they say they behave.

Understanding desire of control in a real setting

To explore how desire for control might shape workplace behavior, we ran a lab study in Kenya in 2024, focused on gender differences in delegation. A sample of 597 managers (315 women and 278 men) and 148 employees came from across Nairobi to participate in a task delegation experiment where the managers were required to divide work tasks between themselves and an employee under time constraints.

People’s desire for control may influence their decision to delegate work. Those with a high desire for control may struggle to hand over responsibilities, fearing a loss of oversight or influence on the outcome (Rawlings, 2019). We used this as a control variable to ensure that differences in delegation behavior are not due to varying levels of desire for control, but rather to examine gender-specific outcomes.

This study was a joint effort, made possible through collaboration with the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Hub at Kenyatta University, supported by Dr. Samantha Horn and Anisha Singh, with lab sessions led by Pauline Wanjeri and the dedicated efforts of the entire research team. For this experiment, we designed a modified version of the game developed by Sloof and von Siemens (2016), and adapted it to a Kenyan context. This was the first time this game was played at the Busara labs!

In the game, participants were shown two boxes- one containing money and one that was empty. The selection of the winning box was random and done by the computer. Participants were told that, by default, someone else would choose the box for them. However, they could pay a small premium to take control of the choice themselves. The amount they were willing to pay became the measure of their desire for control.

*Image 1: Participants were shown these boxes and asked to choose one if the premium they were willing to pay was higher than the computer’s randomly generated amount.*

The results from our study have been fascinating! On average, both men and women paid similar amounts to take control of the button choice- around 166 KSH (p = 0.92).

One particularly surprising insight: there is suggestive evidence that individuals with a higher desire for control were more likely to delegate tasks (p < 0.10). This finding might offer an interesting contradiction to common assumptions. Rather than hoarding responsibilities, these individuals may be delegating strategically- recognizing that effective management sometimes means trusting others and optimizing how tasks are distributed.

We are curious to hear what you think- why might people who value control choose to delegate? Could it be a sign of confident leadership, rather than a loss of control?

We’re excited to see what else we’ll uncover from the data. In the meantime, remember: maybe pressing that “close door” button isn’t about getting somewhere faster—it’s just about feeling like you’re driving the elevator!

References

Amoura, C., Berjot, S. & Gillet, N. (2013). Desire for control: Its effect on needs satisfaction and autonomous motivation. Revue internationale de psychologie sociale, 26, 55-71.

Burger, J. M., & Cooper, H. M. (1979). The desirability of control. Motivation and emotion, 3, 381-393.

Myles, L. A. M., Merlo, E. M., & Obele, A. (2021). Desire for control moderates the relationship between perceived control and depressive symptomology. Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences, 8(2), 299-305.

Moulding, R., & Kyrios, M. (2007). Desire for control, sense of control and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Cognitive therapy and research, 31, 759-772.

Rawlings, T. (2019) 7 reasons leaders are reluctant to delegate. The People Development Magazine.

Sloof, R., & von Siemens, F. A. (2017). Illusion of control and the pursuit of authority. Experimental Economics, 20, 556-573.