Socially informed control inferences inform generalisation of control beliefs

Perceived control in one context can affect behaviour in novel contexts. One potentially important variable determining generalisation is how perceived control in one context shapes beliefs about the self. Typically, learned helplessness studies do not control or manipulate this factor. Here, we test whether observing others’ ability to exert control helps to inform inferences about whether the controllability is primarily due to one’s own ability or a feature of the current environment, and thereby determines the degree of generalisation. In an initial study (N=200) and pre-registered replication study (N=436) we used comparative social feedback about performance in a novel task (the Wheel Stopping task) to assess how self- or environment-specific inferences shape control beliefs. Linear mixed effects models revealed that both task controllability and social feedback uniquely predicted participants’ local control beliefs (trial-by-trial), after accounting for perceived task difficulty in both studies. Additionally, in Study 2, there was a significant decrease of internal locus of control in the group with self-specific feedback in the low control condition, suggesting that in low-control scenarios, self-specific inferences of control impact global control beliefs. Study 2 further revealed that task controllability and feedback were not related to changes in reported self- versus task-specific attribution of control, nor was there evidence of generalisation to impact performance in a second stressor controllability task. These results suggest that comparative social feedback shape local and global control beliefs but do not change reported self- or task-attribution of control, or predict behaviour during a second task.