How Manipulation of Control Influences Desire for Control and Psychological Ownership

Abstract

Compensatory control theory states that when a situational factor causes a reduction in a sense of control, there is a drive to return it to baseline. This results in a temporary increase in a desire for control. However, previous research has shown that Japanese have a naturally low desire for control. Thus, this drive to restore a sense of control may remain weak among Japanese individuals even when it is low. Accordingly, in Study 1, we manipulated the sense of control (high, low) in a sample of Japanese to investigate whether the desire for control temporarily increased and succeeded in reproducing that result. In Study 2, we focused on customization as a strategy for restoring a lowered sense of control. We based our investigation on the prediction that psychological ownership of customized products would rise when the desire for control was temporarily increased because of a low sense of control; however, no difference was found due to the sense of control manipulation. In addition, psychological ownership was high in the high sense of the control condition (vs. the low sense of control condition) regardless of whether there was customization.