Boundaries of Self-Control: Relinquishing Control Over Aversive Events

Research suggests that while people generally prefer to retain a sense of personal control, they also often freely relinquish control over events. We argue that in many situations people give up behavioral control over an event to retain a perception of control over their general well-being. Three experiments and a pilot study found that people given a choice of administering a blood sample to themselves or of allowing an experimenter to take the sample opted to give the experimenter control over the sample in the majority of cases. In support of our interpretation of this phenomenon, Experiment 1 subjects opted to retain control when led to believe an assistant-administered sample would lead to more harm and pain than a self-administered sample. Experiment 2 subjects again relinquished control to the experimenter and to a competent assistant, but chose self-administration when they believed the assistant was no more competent to administer the blood sample than they were. Subjects in the latter condition also reported decreased anxiety when made aware of the self-administration option. Finally, Experiment 3 subjects who scored high on a measure of need for control, and who therefore valued the control option highly, were less likely to relinquish control over the blood sample than those low in this need.