How perception of control shapes decision making

Perceived control—the belief in our ability to successfully influence the environment—significantly shapes how we make decisions and interact with our environment. Because of its intrinsically rewarding nature, the opportunity to exert control tends to bias individuals towards behaviors that endow an enhanced perception of control. Here, we leverage recent behavioral and neuroimaging work to highlight three particular attributes of control (i.e. affective, motivational and protective), which contribute to how perceived control shapes decision making via the corticostriatal circuits and impacts wellbeing. We then consider how impairments in perceived control could represent a transdiagnostic feature across psychopathologies.