Editing Illusion of control (section)

==Definition==
The illusion of control is the tendency for people to overestimate their ability to control events, for example, when someone feels a sense of control over outcomes that they demonstrably do not influence.<ref name="thompson_defn">{{harvnb| Thompson|1999|pp=187,124}}</ref> 

The illusion might arise because a person lacks direct [[introspection|introspective]] insight into whether they are in control of events. This has been called the [[introspection illusion]]. Instead, they may judge their degree of control by a process which is often unreliable. As a result, they see themselves as responsible for events to which there is little or no [[causality|causal link]]. For example, in one study, college students were in a virtual reality setting to treat a fear of heights using an elevator. Those who were told that they had control, yet had none, felt as though they had as much control as those who actually did have control over the elevator. Those who were led to believe they did not have control said they felt as though they had little control.<ref name="Virtual Reality Illusion of Control">{{cite journal| vauthors = Hobbs CN, Kreiner DS, Honeycutt MW, Hinds RM, Brockman CJ |title=The Illusion of Control in a Virtual Reality Setting|journal=North American Journal of Psychology|year=2010|volume=12|issue=3|url=http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/North-American-Journal-Psychology/245167898.html|access-date=2016-05-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160601101807/http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/North-American-Journal-Psychology/245167898.html|archive-date=2016-06-01|url-status=dead}}</ref>