Illusion of control for self and others in depressed and nondepressed college students

Recently, it has been discovered that depressed people are less likely than nondepressed people to succumb to an "illusion of control" and judge that their actions influence outcomes that are objectively uncontrollable. This experiment examined the relationship between depression and susceptibility to the illusion of control for oneself and for others. Depressed and nondepressed college students were asked to judge either how much control they themselves had or how much control a male or female confederate had over a noncontingent, but positive, outcome. Replicating past findings on depression and judgments of control, depressed subjects judged relatively accurately that they exerted little control over the experimental outcome, whereas nondepressed subjects overestimated their personal control. Subjects' judgments of the confederates' control were a function of the subject's mood state and sex as well as of the confederate's sex. With one exception (depressed males in the male other condition), depressed subjects tended to overestimate the confederate's (male or female) control over the noncontingent outcome. Nondepressed females also judged that the confederate (male or female) exerted a high degree of control, thus succumbing to the illusion of control both for themselves and others. Nondepressed males, on the other hand, tended to judge more accurately that the confederate (particularly the female confederate) exerted little control and thus, succumbed to the illusion of control for themselves but not for others. These findings imply that an adequate understanding of depressive and nondepressive cognition requires an interpersonal as well as an intrapsychic perspective.