{
  "id": "illusion-of-control.over",
  "term": "illusion of control",
  "sense": "over",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "published",
  "level": 16,
  "domain": "agency",
  "style": "window",
  "definition": "A self-model that reports as within its reach what no action of its own can set.",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "self-model.reflexive",
      "reach.action",
      "report.information",
      "action.deed",
      "set.fix",
      "control.ability"
    ],
    "interaction": "Actions and outcomes arrive together often enough that the self-model files the outcome as its own work, and counts walls it cannot move as walls it sets.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "outcomes credited to actions that did not cause them",
      "reach read as larger than it is",
      "confidence without a lever"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "Craps players throw the dice harder when they want high numbers and softer for low ones.",
      "domain": "gambling"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "self-efficacy.calibrated",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "SELF-READ over vs accurate"
    },
    {
      "id": "hope.emotional",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "hope reads a closed window as reachable; the illusion reads an unmovable wall as one's own"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [
    "cargo-cult.ritual"
  ],
  "forms": [
    "illusion of control"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "claude-opus-5-5:hand-curated",
    "date": "2026-09-28",
    "confidence": 0.85,
    "sources": [
      "schema/power-agency-phase.md"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-illusion-of-control.over"
}