Effect Of Risk Assessment And Issue Involvement On Illusion Of Control For Gain And Loss

Illusion of control is defined as an expectancy of a personal success probability inappropriately higher than the objective probability, and to believe they can control random events due to establish an error causal relationship between their behavior and the results. Researchers have discussed deeply around the issues of formation mechanism and influencing factors about the illusion of control. The researches show that the illusion of control involves two relevant parts:one is the intention to achieve some outcomes; the other is the perceived connection between one’s action and outcome. Following the previous studies, this research uses an indirect measurement method to explore the effect of risk assessment and issue involvement on the illusion of control at the situation of gain and loss in Chinese undergraduates from the view of risk decision-making.This research includes a situation questionnaire survey and two experiments. The participants are all undergraduates. First, by using the situation questionnaire survey, we explore whether the illusion of control is widespread in the undergraduates. Then the experiment was designed as2(high-risk assessment versus medium-risk assessment)×2(high issue involvement versus low issue involvement) mixed design. The aim of the experiment is to explore the effect of risk assessment and issue involvement on illusion of control at the situation of gain and loss.The results showed that:(1) The interaction effect between choice and select preference reached a significant level(z=-3.453, p<0.01).(2) At the situation of gain, when assessing the medium-risk, high issue involvement group are more prefer select cards themselves than low issue involvement group (χ2(2.58)=11.737, p<0.01). When assessing the high-risk, high issue involvement group are more prefer definitely benefits than low issue involvement group (χ2(258)=7.299, p<0.05).(3) At the situation of loss, when assessing the medium-risk, there is no significant difference in selected preference between the two issue involvement group (χ(1.58)=1.801, p>0.05). When assessing the high-risk, high issue involvement group are more prefer select cards themselves than low issue involvement group (χ2(1.58)=8.718, p<0.01)From the analysis of the results, the conclusion was:(1) Choice can induce the undergraduates’illusion of control. Like the old saying:’ standers-by see more than gamesters.(2) Self-serving intention has an important influence on undergraduates’ illusion of control, they are easily confused by interests. When undergraduates are asked for self-financing, they tend to take the initiative to control the random event. On the contrary. they can keep rational to make decision relying on the risk probability. They do not think they have the ability to control random events at this time. This shows that "eager for quick success and instant benefit" will induce undergraduates to make irrational decisions.(3) At the situation of gain, when assessing the medium-risk, undergraduates want to obtain risk-benefit in the way of control the random event actively. When assessing the high-risk, undergraduates want to obtain definitely benefits through conservative strategy.(4) At the situation of loss, when assessing the medium-risk, undergraduates do not show control preferences and make a random decision. When assessing the high-risk, undergraduates avoid losses by controlling the random event actively.