Illusion of Control
Etymology
The phrase was coined by psychologist Ellen Langer in 1975. Her experiments showed people valued lottery tickets they had chosen over ones handed to them, and bet more when they threw the dice themselves — as if personal involvement could bend pure odds.
noun phrase · /ih-LOO-zhun uhv kun-TROHL/
The tendency to overestimate how much influence you have over outcomes that are largely chance.
What it names
Why we blow on dice, pick our own lottery numbers, and feel our fussing steered a result luck actually decided.
Example
The day trader’s constant tinkering was mostly an illusion of control over a market that moved on its own.
Related idea
Optimism bias skews what you expect to happen; the illusion of control inflates how much you believe you’re causing it.