心理学家朱利安·罗特（Julian Rotter）于20世纪60年代提出了“控制点”（locus of control）理论，将个体划分为相信能掌控自身命运的“内控型”（internals）与认为命运由运气或外在力量决定的“外控型”（externals）。悉尼大学经济学家德博拉·科布-克拉克（Deborah Cobb-Clark）对德国失业群体的研究表明，外控型个体的求职积极性显著更低，且要求的底线工资（reservation wages）也明显偏低。研究进一步显示，内控型倾向与更强的自我控制力、更高的家庭储蓄率以及将创业意向转化为实际行动的能力密切相关；马德里卡洛斯三世大学的研究亦证实，准母亲的内控倾向与其在积极育儿上投入的精力呈正相关。
大众普遍存在低估自身行动力的倾向。哥伦比亚大学关于求助实验的研究发现，受试者在预估需要接触多少陌生人才能完成填表或借手机等任务时，实际所需人数远低于预估值，表明人们严重低估了他人因难于当面拒绝而提供帮助的概率。芝加哥大学经济学家史蒂芬·列维特（Steven Levitt）针对面临重大抉择的犹豫者进行的虚拟抛硬币实验显示，掷出赞成改变的结果显著促使人们打破现状，且主动选择改变的受试者报告了更高的幸福感，证明许多人缺乏打破现状的主观能动性，需要外部微小推力来促成行动。
控制点心理差异也深刻影响着企业组织的效能。哈尔滨工业大学关于深圳制造业企业应用人工智能（AI）的研究显示，将AI视作可掌握技能的内控型员工更乐于共享知识与实操经验，而将技术视作岗位威胁的外控型员工则倾向于隐瞒信息。AI领域学者安德烈·卡帕西（Andrej Karpathy）指出，主观能动性作为一种人格特质比单纯的智力更为强大且稀缺。管理者在招聘中可评估候选人的控制点特征，建立明确挂钩业绩的薪酬与晋升机制，并通过设立行动导向的文化规范来激励员工主动破局。
Developed in the 1960s by psychologist Julian Rotter, the locus of control concept distinguishes between "internals"—who believe they actively shape their environment and possess agency—and "externals," who attribute outcomes to luck, destiny, or external forces. Research by economist Deborah Cobb-Clark on unemployed cohorts in Germany shows that externals search far less intensively for jobs and accept lower reservation wages. Strong internal locus is empirically linked to higher self-control, greater household savings rates, and a higher propensity for founders to convert entrepreneurial intent into action, while studies from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid indicate that expectant mothers with internal orientations invest substantially more effort in proactive parenting.
Most individuals routinely underestimate their real capacity to influence their circumstances. Columbia University experiments demonstrated that participants consistently overestimated the number of strangers they would need to approach to borrow a mobile phone or complete questionnaires; actual required attempts were significantly lower due to social awkwardness in refusing direct requests. Furthermore, a University of Chicago experiment by Steven Levitt using virtual coin tosses for pivotal life choices showed that nudges toward change prompted participants to break the status quo, with those taking action reporting significantly higher happiness levels than those who remained inactive.
Psychological agency similarly affects workplace productivity and technology adoption. A study by Harbin Institute of Technology researchers on Shenzhen manufacturers adopting artificial intelligence revealed that internal employees viewed AI as a masterable skill and actively shared insights, whereas externals perceived AI as an existential job threat and hoarded information. With AI researcher Andrej Karpathy noting that individual agency is scarcer and more powerful than raw intelligence, corporate managers should screen for internal locus during hiring, make compensation explicitly performance-contingent, and foster proactive, action-oriented cultural frameworks.
Source: The quality you should most wish for your childre
Subtitle: The benefits of having an internal locus of control
Dateline: Aug 27th 2026