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| Illusion of control is the tendency for human beings to
believe they can control or at least influence outcomes of which
researchers deem them to have no influence over. Prayer,
superstitions and postulated paranormal powers underline the
limitations of science to falsify many of these "illusory"
controls. The predominant paradigm in research on unrealistic
perceived control has been Ellen Langer’s (1975) “illusion of
control”. Langer showed that people often behave as if chance
events are accessible to personal control. In a series of
experiments, Langer demonstrated first the prevalence of the
illusion of control and second, that people were more likely to
behave as if they could exercise control in a chance situation
where “skill cues” were present. By skill cues, Langer meant
properties of the situation more normally associated with the
exercise of skill, in particular the exercise