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Psychological factor, barrier 4 of 8

Learned helplessness

Seligman and Maier (1967) found repeated uncontrollable setbacks can teach an organism to stop trying. Maier and Seligman (2016) revised this, concluding that passivity is the default response to prolonged adversity and that a sense of control must be learned.

Evidence

  • How common. No large study of how common learned helplessness is in people was found. The Ethiopian aspirations trial under cultural factors is the closest human evidence that expectations of what is possible can be changed.
  • Laboratory evidence. In one laboratory study, a single failure improved later performance while four failures worsened it (Mikulincer, Kedem, and Zilkha-Segal, 1989).
  • Critiques. Critics argue such deficits can arise from causes other than expecting future lack of control, and that artificial lab tasks may not generalize (Silver, Wortman, and Klos, 1982).

Note: No study linking learned helplessness to real-world achievement was found, so this barrier is rated C.

What can be done

Actions rated on the strength-rating scale (A strong and replicated, B solid but limited, C weak or debated, D contested or failed), applied to the specific claim made.

  • Context: The researchers who described learned helplessness now conclude that passivity is the default response to prolonged hardship and that a sense of control must be learned (B for the animal evidence, C for humans) (Maier and Seligman, 2016), a view some researchers dispute (Wu et al., 2021). Poverty and common mental illness cause each other, and anti-poverty programs improve mental health (Ridley et al., 2020, Haushofer and Fehr, 2014).
  • Programs that give the poorest households assets, consumption support, and coaching (A for economic outcomes, B for psychological outcomes). Across six trials in six countries, a mental health index rose by 0.099 standard deviations, easing to 0.071 a year after the programs ended (Banerjee et al., 2015).
  • Unconditional cash transfers, sized large relative to income (B). Across 45 studies with 116,999 people, mental health improved by d = 0.07 and wellbeing by d = 0.13, with larger transfers producing larger effects (McGuire, Kaiser, and Bach-Mortensen, 2022). In Kenya, recipients reported large gains in psychological wellbeing (Haushofer and Shapiro, 2016), and an independent reanalysis confirmed the results (Wang and Luo, 2019).
  • Role-model documentaries that raise aspirations (B). In 64 Ethiopian villages, a one-hour screening of documentaries about people from similar backgrounds raised savings and children's school enrollment at six months (Bernard et al., 2014), and treated households had made more future-oriented investments five years later (Bernard et al., 2026). It is one trial in one country.
  • Behavioral activation delivered by junior staff (B). Behavioral activation by junior mental health workers was as effective as CBT by therapists at 12 months (Richards et al., 2016), though most earlier trials were of low quality (Ekers et al., 2014).
  • Not shown to work: universal school resilience programs (D). Effects were small and not better than active controls (Brunwasser, Gillham, and Kim, 2009), a UK rollout's small effect (d = 0.093) was gone within a year (Challen, Machin, and Gillham, 2014), and a meta-analysis concluded large-scale rollout cannot be recommended (Bastounis et al., 2016).
  • Not shown to work in one large trial: brief therapy alone, without material support, for very poor households (B for that result). In Kenya, a five-week program had no measurable effect at one year, while cash did help (Haushofer, Mudida, and Shapiro, 2020).

Proposed and experimental methods

Methods that are proposed, under trial, approved in some places, or tried and then failed. Each shows a stage label and an evidence rating. A stage label shows how far a method has progressed, not whether it works. The stage labels are explained on the psychological factor page.

  • Personal initiative training for small business owners (Large trial, B). A short course that teaches self-starting, future-oriented, and persistent behavior, instead of standard accounting and marketing content, aims to build a proactive mindset that is the opposite of helplessness. In Togo, 1,500 microenterprise owners were randomized to a control group, a leading traditional business training, or personal initiative training (500 each). Over four follow-up surveys in two years, personal initiative training raised profits by 30%, versus a statistically insignificant 11% for traditional training, and paid for itself within one year (Campos et al., 2017). It is one trial in one country, and it measured business outcomes rather than sense of control.
  • Free online single-session agency interventions for adolescents (Large trial, B). These are brief, self-guided online sessions that teach that personal traits can change, or that guide people to plan rewarding activities (behavioral activation). In 2,452 U.S. adolescents aged 13 to 16 with elevated depression symptoms, both active sessions increased agency right after the session (d = 0.15 to 0.31) and reduced hopelessness after the session and at three months (d = 0.16 to 0.28) compared with a supportive control (Schleider et al., 2022). Effects are small, participants were recruited through social media, and growth mindset lessons for school achievement are covered in "Fixed beliefs about ability" in the psychological factors. Effects on depression are in "Fear, anxiety, and depression" in the psychological factors.
  • Guaranteed income in high-income countries (Large trial, B). This builds on the unconditional cash transfers above by testing regular, unconditional payments in rich countries. In a U.S. trial, 1,000 low-income adults received $1,000 per month for three years and 2,000 controls received $50 per month. Stress showed "large but short-lived" improvements and mental health did not improve after the first year (Miller et al., 2024), labor force participation fell by 4.2 percentage points, and subjective well-being was higher in the first year and then returned to control levels (Vivalt et al., 2024). In Finland, 2,000 unemployed people received a tax-free €560 per month in 2017 and 2018 and reported higher life satisfaction and less mental strain, depression, and loneliness, but only 23% answered the survey (31% of recipients versus 20% of controls), and a researcher on the team said it is not possible to say with certainty that the basic income caused the gains (Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, 2020).
  • Participatory budgeting to build civic agency (Large trial, C). Residents or students directly decide how part of a public budget is spent, which is proposed to build political efficacy, the belief that one can influence collective outcomes. A randomized field experiment in China reaching over 20 million people found that six months after communities began deciding local budgets, residents showed more civic engagement outside budgeting, a more positive societal outlook, more demand for improvement from the central government, and more satisfaction with national policies (Wu et al., 2024). A study of 28 students in one Arizona middle school reported a large self-rated gain in political efficacy (d = 1.46) without describing a control group (Gibbs, Bartlett, and Schugurensky, 2021). Neither study measured sense of control directly, and the Chinese study was designed to test whether participation in an authoritarian setting increases or pacifies civic engagement.

Sources cited on this page

  1. Mikulincer, M., Kedem, P., & Zilkha-Segal, H. (1989). Learned helplessness, reactance, and cue utilization. Journal of Research in Personality, 23(2), 235-247. DOI C Limited
  2. Silver, R. L., Wortman, C. B., & Klos, D. S. (1982). Cognitions, affect, and behavior following uncontrollable outcomes: a response to current human helplessness research. Journal of Personality, 50(4), 480-514. DOI B Moderate
  3. Seligman, M. E. P., & Maier, S. F. (1967). Failure to escape traumatic shock. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74(1), 1-9. DOI B Moderate: for the animal finding, C for applying it to human motivation
  4. Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2016). Learned helplessness at fifty. Psychological Review, 123(4), 349-367. DOI B Moderate: for the animal mechanism, C for applying it to human motivation
  5. Banerjee, A., Duflo, E., Goldberg, N., Karlan, D., Osei, R., Parienté, W., et al. (2015). A multifaceted program causes lasting progress for the very poor: Evidence from six countries. Science, 348(6236), 1260799. link A Strong: for economic outcomes, B for psychosocial outcomes
  6. Bastounis, A., Callaghan, P., Banerjee, A., & Michail, M. (2016). The effectiveness of the Penn Resiliency Programme (PRP) and its adapted versions in reducing depression and anxiety and improving explanatory style: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Adolescence, 52, 37-48. link B Moderate
  7. Bernard, T., Dercon, S., Orkin, K., & Taffesse, A. S. (2014). The future in mind: Aspirations and forward-looking behaviour in rural Ethiopia (BREAD Working Paper No. 429). Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development. link B Moderate
  8. Bernard, T., Dercon, S., Orkin, K., Schinaia, G., & Taffesse, A. S. (2026). The future in mind: Aspirations and long-term outcomes in rural Ethiopia. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 141(2), 1383-1447. link B Moderate
  9. Brunwasser, S. M., Gillham, J. E., & Kim, E. S. (2009). A meta-analytic review of the Penn Resiliency Program's effect on depressive symptoms. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 77(6), 1042-1054. link C Limited
  10. Challen, A. R., Machin, S. J., & Gillham, J. E. (2014). The UK Resilience Programme: A school-based universal nonrandomized pragmatic controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 82(1), 75-89. link B Moderate
  11. Ekers, D., Webster, L., Van Straten, A., Cuijpers, P., Richards, D., & Gilbody, S. (2014). Behavioural activation for depression: An update of meta-analysis of effectiveness and sub group analysis. PLoS ONE, 9(6), e100100. link B Moderate
  12. Haushofer, J., & Fehr, E. (2014). On the psychology of poverty. Science, 344(6186), 862-867. link B Moderate: for the poverty to stress link, C for the decision-making mechanism
  13. Haushofer, J., & Shapiro, J. (2016). The short-term impact of unconditional cash transfers to the poor: Experimental evidence from Kenya. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(4), 1973-2042. link B Moderate
  14. Haushofer, J., Mudida, R., & Shapiro, J. P. (2020). The comparative impact of cash transfers and a psychotherapy program on psychological and economic well-being (NBER Working Paper No. 28106). National Bureau of Economic Research. link B Moderate
  15. Maier, M., Bartoš, F., Stanley, T. D., Shanks, D. R., Harris, A. J. L., & Wagenmakers, E.-J. (2022). No evidence for nudging after adjusting for publication bias. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(31), e2200300119. link B Moderate
  16. McGuire, J., Kaiser, C., & Bach-Mortensen, A. M. (2022). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the impact of cash transfers on subjective well-being and mental health in low- and middle-income countries. Nature Human Behaviour, 6(3), 359-370. link B Moderate
  17. Richards, D. A., Ekers, D., McMillan, D., Taylor, R. S., Byford, S., Warren, F. C., et al. (2016). Cost and Outcome of Behavioural Activation versus Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Depression (COBRA): A randomised, controlled, non-inferiority trial. The Lancet, 388(10047), 871-880. link B Moderate
  18. Ridley, M., Rao, G., Schilbach, F., & Patel, V. (2020). Poverty, depression, and anxiety: Causal evidence and mechanisms. Science, 370(6522), eaay0214. link B Moderate
  19. Wang, H., & Luo, J. (2019). The short-term impact of unconditional cash transfers: A replication study of a randomized controlled trial in Kenya. Journal of Development Effectiveness, 11(4), 391-408. link B Moderate
  20. Wu, M., Yao, L., Li, Y., Qian, Z., Chen, N., Yang, H., et al. (2021). Is learned helplessness learned: Comments on the rethinking of the theory of learned helplessness. Journal of Psychological Science, 44(2), 419-425. link C Limited
  21. Campos, F., Frese, M., Goldstein, M., Iacovone, L., Johnson, H. C., McKenzie, D., et al. (2017). Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa. Science, 357(6357), 1287-1290. link B Moderate
  22. Gibbs, N. P., Bartlett, T., & Schugurensky, D. (2021). Does school participatory budgeting increase students' political efficacy? Bandura's "sources," civic pedagogy, and education for democracy. Curriculum and Teaching, 36(1), 5-27. link C Limited
  23. Schleider, J. L., Mullarkey, M. C., Fox, K. R., Dobias, M. L., Shroff, A., Hart, E. A., et al. (2022). A randomized trial of online single-session interventions for adolescent depression during COVID-19. Nature Human Behaviour, 6(2), 258-268. link B Moderate
  24. Vivalt, E., Rhodes, E., Bartik, A. W., Broockman, D. E., Krause, P., & Miller, S. (2024). The employment effects of a guaranteed income: Experimental evidence from two U.S. states (NBER Working Paper No. 32719). National Bureau of Economic Research. link B Moderate
  25. Wu, S. J., Mai, K. M., Zhuang, M., & Yi, F. (2024). A large-scale field experiment on participatory decision-making in China. Nature Human Behaviour, 8(11), 2119-2126. link B Moderate
  26. Schleider, J. L., & Weisz, J. R. (2017). Little treatments, promising effects? Meta-analysis of single-session interventions for youth psychiatric problems. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 56(2), 107-115. link B Moderate

Every source for this factor is listed on the psychological factor page.