The resource elasticity of control
- 1Department of Cognitive Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
- 2Department of Psychology Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
- 3Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Abstract
The ability to determine how much the environment can be controlled through our actions has long been viewed as fundamental to adaptive behavior. While traditional accounts treat controllability as a fixed property of the environment, we argue that real-world controllability often depends on the effort, time, and money we are able and willing to invest. In such cases, controllability can be said to be elastic to invested resources. Here, we propose that inferring this elasticity is essential for efficient resource allocation, and thus, elasticity misestimations result in maladaptive behavior. To test this hypothesis, we developed a novel treasure hunt game where participants encountered environments with varying degrees of controllability and elasticity. Across two pre-registered studies (N=514), we first demonstrate that people infer elasticity and adapt their resource allocation accordingly. We then present a computational model that explains how people make this inference and identify individual elasticity biases that lead to suboptimal resource allocation. Finally, we show that overestimation of elasticity is associated with elevated psychopathology involving an impaired sense of control. These findings establish the elasticity of control as a distinct cognitive construct guiding adaptive behavior and a computational marker for control-related maladaptive behavior.
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BibTeX
@article{solomyak2026resource,
title = {{The resource elasticity of control}},
author = {Levi Solomyak and Aviv Emanuel and Eran Eldar},
journal = {eLife},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.7554/elife.105507},
url = {https://elifesciences.org/articles/105507},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - The resource elasticity of control
AU - Levi Solomyak
AU - Aviv Emanuel
AU - Eran Eldar
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/06
JO - eLife
DO - 10.7554/elife.105507
UR - https://elifesciences.org/articles/105507
AB - The ability to determine how much the environment can be controlled through our actions has long been viewed as fundamental to adaptive behavior. While traditional accounts treat controllability as a fixed property of the environment, we argue that real-world controllability often depends on the effort, time, and money we are able and willing to invest. In such cases, controllability can be said to be elastic to invested resources. Here, we propose that inferring this elasticity is essential for efficient resource allocation, and thus, elasticity misestimations result in maladaptive behavior. To test this hypothesis, we developed a novel treasure hunt game where participants encountered environments with varying degrees of controllability and elasticity. Across two pre-registered studies (N=514), we first demonstrate that people infer elasticity and adapt their resource allocation accordingly. We then present a computational model that explains how people make this inference and identify individual elasticity biases that lead to suboptimal resource allocation. Finally, we show that overestimation of elasticity is associated with elevated psychopathology involving an impaired sense of control. These findings establish the elasticity of control as a distinct cognitive construct guiding adaptive behavior and a computational marker for control-related maladaptive behavior.
SN - 2050-084X
ER -