Social feedback informs 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 beliefs about the self. 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 in both studies revealed that both task controllability and social feedback uniquely predicted participants' local control beliefs (trial-by-trial), after accounting for perceived task difficulty. Additionally, in Study 2, there was a significant decrease of internal locus of control in the group given low relative feedback in the low control condition, suggesting that in low control, social feedback impacts 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. Social feedback generalised to influence behaviour in a second task in terms of the number of actions performed but not the time taken to escape or the proportion of those who learned to escaped. These results suggest that comparative social feedback shapes local control beliefs, global control beliefs in low control scenarios, and generalises to some aspects of behaviour in a second task, but does not change reported self- or task-attribution of control.