This video explains, what is the illusion of control and how we can overcome the illusion of control. The video also explains the illusion of causality. We all are living in the illusion of control. But what exactly it is? When we start to believe that we have greater control over events or people than we actually do, the illusion of control arises. Because of this illusion we even try to control or influence things that are matter of random chances.
To understand it better let's suppose there is a circle around you. All the things that are under your full control are inside this circle while the things that are present outside this circle are completely out of your control. What things lie inside or outside the circle may vary from person to person but this concept of circle is applicable to all of us.
But what if I tell you, we all are living in the illusion of control. Actually nothing you can control completely always.
After this discussion, let me tell you that in the example of circle nothing actually exists inside the circle, even if you believe so.
The hard reality is, you cannot control anything completely in this world. If someone thinks or believes that he has 100℅ control on something or someone and he can do it all the time, then I would say that he is living in an illusion. This type of illusion arises because of ignorance or lack of knowledge. When you consider only a small portion of vast possibilities, it happens.
I agree there are certain things that you believe you can control but still lot more things are there in this universe that are fully out of your control.
Here let me clear one thing, what you call control is actually influencing.
You cannot control but you can influence other people or events. So the things like relationship, money, time, food, job etc. that were inside the circle for some people and they thought they can control these things, is nothing but the illusion of control.
All they can do is just influence these things.
So they must understand the difference between influencing and controlling.
But is there anything that we can actually control fully, which we can put inside the circle with full confidence?
Yes, although you cannot control things always completely but what you can control is your attitude and behavior for these things.
Actually problems arise when we try to include things inside the circle that actually should lie outside the circle.
And the result of this illusion is unnecessary stress. We must understand what should be present inside or outside the circle. Not only this, we must also understand that the things that we include inside the circle are also not in our full control.
This false sense of control can also trigger different types of superstitions and beliefs. We may think that our superstitious acts are controlling a particular event. We tend to find connection between unconnected things and become narrow minded.
The term “illusion of control” was first coined by Ellen Langer in the 1970s.
Before Langer introduced this term, another term known as the "illusion of causality" was established by other studies.
Actually the illusion of control is a specific type of causal illusion.
According to the illusion of causality, people have a tendency to see causal relationships in places they don’t actually exist.
There is one interesting behavior associated with the illusion of control. We may call it, "Magical thinking". You tend to attribute the outcome to your own thoughts. And if the outcome turns out to be what you wished for, your illusion of control strengthens. You may start to believe you can control even the random events.
So the illusion of control can lead you to take wrong decisions in your life. As you may overestimate your controlling power.
In this illusion, you often feel stressed while struggling to control those things that are actually not in your control.
So it is important to come out of the illusion of control. After coming out of this illusion, you can take better decisions in your life and can judge people and situations in a much better way.
You can use different strategies to come out of this illusion.
So to come out of the illusion of control, you should gain more and more knowledge about a subject. After doing this you would be able to analyze different aspects of a situation.
Instead of being superstitious, you must adopt the scientific approach while analyzing something.
According to a study published in 2015 in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, it was suggested that scientific thinking was the best way to avoid falling for the illusion of control.
You may also seek other people’s opinions. By doing this you would be aware of other causal factors that you never thought.
So in this way you can come out of the illusion of control. And as soon as you would come out of this illusion, you would realize that you were actually living in the illusion of control.
#illusionofcontrol #mind
7 окт 2024
