Threatened by Control: Worldview Moderates Threat in Response to Having or Lacking Control

Research suggests that people react positively to having personal control and are threatened when they lack it. In contrast, we theorize that people will be threatened when their experience of having or lacking control is mismatched with their worldview. We focus on endorsement of the Protestant work ethic (PWE)–a key part of Americans’ worldviews, which holds that individuals’ efforts determine their outcomes. Participants (N = 151) completed an evaluative task during which we assessed threat using cardiovascular measures. Participants learned that they either had or lacked control over whether they would be entered into a lottery (i.e., it was based on their task performance or the chance roll of a die). Consistent with our predictions, participants who endorsed PWE were more threatened when they lacked control than when they had control. However, participants who rejected PWE were more threatened when they had control than when they lacked control.