Joop van der Pligt

Career sketch

Joop van der Pligt graduated from the University of Utrecht in 1977 where he obtained degrees in Psychology en Philosophy. In 1981 he received a PhD at London University. Since 2006 he works at the University of Amsterdam at the Social Psychology Department. His research focuses on attitudes and decision-making. More specific, his research focuses on the role of affect in attitude formation and change, ambivalence, and on how people deal with counter-attitudinal information. His research on decisicion making deals with the role of (anticipated) emotions in decision-making, perceived risk and the acceptability of risk, and the consequences of uncertainty and (lack of) control on judgment and decision-making.

Illusions of control, superstition and (ir)rationality

This presentation focuses on control. Situations that are relatively uncontrollable and unpredictable are generally seen as aversive. The most obvious way to do something about that is to increase effort in order to regain control. Unfortunately, this is not always a strategy that works. In order to deal with lack of control people employ a range of strategies. This first is called the illusion of control. In many situations people overestimate the amount of control they have. We will show that people even seem to think that they have control in situations that are fully determined by chance. Another way to combat low levels of control is called compensatory control, i.e., the belief that other agents will make the world more predictable and controllable. Finally, superstition is another way to regain control over uncertain situations. In the present talk I will provide illustrations of all three mechanisms (illusion of control, compensatory control, and superstition) and discuss their (ir)rationality and functional value.