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Previous research indicates that in some situations people believe they can control events even though they do not have control. The purpose of the present research is to investigate the possibility that individuals could experience an illusion of control related to their actions in virtual reality. In a virtual reality simulation designed for treating fear of heights, we manipulated whether college students had control over movement of an elevator and whether they were told that they could control the elevator. Individuals who were instructed to use controls that had no effect on the elevator indicated ratings of control that were just as high as individuals who could actually control the elevator. Individuals who neither had control nor were led to believe that they had control over the elevator provided low ratings of control. The results suggest that a strong illusion of control can be experienced in a virtual reality setting.
The purpose of the present research is to investigate the possibility that individuals could experience an illusion of control related to their actions in virtual reality. In one sense, all actions in a virtual reality environment are illusory; that is what makes it a virtual environment. The utility of virtual reality environments depends on the degree to which individuals believe that they are in control. We believe that investigating perception of control in a virtual reality environment could increase our understanding of how such simulations work. Further, we believe that this investigation will add to the literature on the situations in which the illusion of control has been shown to occur.
Illusion of Control
The illusion that we can control events over which we do not have control has been the topic of a great deal of research over the last four decades. In a seminal paper, Langer (1975) demonstrated that participants were willing to bet greater amounts on the outcome of a card game when they believed their opponent, a confederate, to be less competent. The outcome of the card game was purely a chance event, yet participants believed they had some control over who won. Langer reported other experiments indicating that the ability to choose options, active involvement in the game, and practice all affected participants' expectations of success.
A meta-analysis conducted...