Affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, University of Tübingen

Abstract: The extent to which we are, and feel that we are, in control of our  lives is central to our behavior and well-being. However, a precise,  unifying account of what it means to feel in control is lacking. We  propose that this feeling derives from an expectation of being able to  carry out a range of potential future tasks.  We formalize this with a  measure that captures (i) the range of available actions, and (ii) the  certainty, or (iii) the possibility of achieving desired outcomes. We  test this measure in two initial experiments in which human  participants prepare themselves to seek rewards or avoid  punishments. We also consider how the attribution of retrospective  success or failure among different causes might influence this feeling  prospectively.  Our framework offers a principled foundation for  understanding how environmental structure shapes the human sense of  control, paving the way towards an integrative science of agency.  This  is joint work with Alireza Modirshanechi, Elena Zamfir and Eric Schulz.