Learned Helplessness: The “I Can’t” Syndrome
My friend has been working for pennies for years, even though he’s a top-notch specialist. My relative lives with someone she doesn’t love. When we don’t try to get out of unpleasant situations, psychologists call this learned helplessness.
What Is Learned Helplessness?
If 27-year-old English boatswain Alexander Selkirk had suffered from this “syndrome,” we’d never have heard the story of Robinson Crusoe. If Mendeleev had given up on organizing the chemical elements, he probably wouldn’t have “dreamed up” the periodic table. And if Adolf Schicklgruber had decided to become a painter, who knows—maybe we’d only know him as an artist.
In reality, learned helplessness isn’t even a syndrome, but rather a personality trait (either situational or permanent) that a person develops after several failed attempts to improve their situation. They start to believe that nothing will work out for them, and passively watch life go by.
The Contradictions
In 1964, American psychologist Martin Seligman—who would later found positive psychology—participated in experiments on dogs at the University of Pennsylvania. The goal was to create a conditioned reflex: fear of high-pitched sounds. To do this, Seligman administered electric shocks to the dogs (who were in cages and couldn’t escape) immediately after they heard a high-pitched sound.
After a while, the cages were opened and the hated sound played again. But instead of running away to avoid the shock, the dogs lay down and whimpered. This result contradicted the dominant behaviorist theory of the time, which held that behavior follows a simple “stimulus-response” pattern and that responses should always benefit the individual. For example, if a child’s apple is taken away, the child tries to get it back, maybe even hitting the offender. A situation where the child just stands there or even gives away another apple didn’t fit the behaviorist model—yet such cases are common.
The same happened with Seligman’s dogs. They should have run as soon as the cages opened, but they didn’t. Seligman proposed a revolutionary idea: the dogs stayed not because they weren’t afraid of the shock, but because they had become used to the inevitable. During the experiment, they had tried to escape several times and failed. So, they gave up—they had “learned helplessness.”
The Dog Experiments
Three years later, in 1967, Seligman continued his experiments with colleague Steven Maier. This time, there were three groups of dogs. The first group could avoid the shock by pressing a special panel with their noses, which turned off the electricity. The second group’s fate depended on the first group’s actions—their own actions had no effect. The third (control) group received no shocks at all. Later, all three groups were placed in a box with a low barrier they could jump over to escape the shock.
Unsurprisingly, the first group, who had learned they could control the shock, jumped over the barrier. The second group, whose actions had never mattered, did nothing to avoid the shock—they just lay down and whimpered. They even got used to stronger shocks over time. Seligman and Maier concluded that it’s not unpleasant experiences themselves that cause helplessness, but the experience of being unable to influence events.
This discovery was so significant that Seligman received the American Psychological Association award in 1976 for his theory of learned helplessness.
Learned Helplessness in People
That same year, two other American psychologists, Ellen Jane Langer and Judith Rodin, continued studying learned helplessness. They conducted a famous study at Arden House, a nursing home in Connecticut. No one was forced to suffer here—helplessness was taught gently. Residents from two floors were randomly selected to participate.
The experimental group consisted of residents from the fourth floor (8 men and 39 women), and the control group from the second floor (9 men and 35 women)—91 people in total. The control group lived as usual, surrounded by care and attention from the staff. The experimental group was given increased responsibility for themselves and their actions.
The administrator gathered each floor’s residents and gave different instructions. To the second floor, he said:
“We want your rooms to be as cozy as possible and will do everything we can to make that happen. We want you to feel happy here and consider ourselves responsible for making you proud of our nursing home and happy here… We’ll do everything we can to help you. I’d also like to give each of you a gift from Arden House [a staff member handed each resident a plant]. These are your plants, they’ll be in your room, and the nurses will water and care for them. You don’t need to do anything.”
To the fourth floor, the administrator said:
“You should decide how your room will look, whether you want to keep things as they are or have our staff help rearrange the furniture… You need to tell us your wishes and what you’d like to change in your life. Also, I’d like to give each of you a gift from Arden House. If you want a plant, you can choose one from this box. These are your plants, and you should care for them as you see fit. Next week, on Tuesday and Friday evenings, we’ll show a movie. You need to decide which day you’ll go, or if you want to go at all.”
So, the fourth-floor residents could control what happened to them and participate in important decisions. The second-floor residents, though well cared for, had no such control—everything was decided for them.
The experiment lasted three weeks. During this time, staff observed participants’ activity, sociability, general well-being, habits, and eating patterns. At the end, surveys measured life satisfaction.
The Power of Responsibility
Fourth-floor residents who controlled their lives felt happier than the second-floor residents who received maximum care but had no responsibility (average “happiness level” was +0.28 for the first group, –0.12 for the second). Staff assessments showed clear improvement for the fourth floor (+3.97) and decline for the second (–2.39). The experimental group also spent more time socializing (+4.64 vs. –2.14). They were more active in watching movies and even in a simple game to guess the number of candies in a jar (10 out of 47 fourth-floor residents participated, compared to just 1 out of 45 on the second floor).
Langer and Rodin concluded that some phenomena usually associated with aging—like memory loss or decreased vitality—are likely linked to losing control over one’s life. To avoid this, it’s enough to restore people’s belief in their own abilities and their right to choose and make decisions.
Six months later, the psychologists returned to Arden House to see if the effects lasted. They did! Nurses reported that former experimental group members still felt better (average overall score: 352.33 vs. 262.00 for the control group). Fourth-floor residents’ health improved, while the second floor’s declined.
The experiment even affected mortality rates: 30% of the control group died during the period, compared to only 15% of the experimental group. As a result, the nursing home administration decided to encourage responsibility and control for all residents going forward.
Other similar experiments showed the same results. Even when elderly people had no choice or control, some began self-destructive behaviors (refusing food or medication)—the only thing they could still control. And it’s not just the elderly.
Similar reactions are seen in younger people in various situations. For example, people feel less anxious in a crowded elevator if they’re near the control panel.
Learned Helplessness in Childhood
People can “learn” helplessness as adults (usually temporarily, in response to negative events they can’t overcome), or as children—often in the family. This early experience shapes personality traits: introversion, emotional instability, excitability, pessimism, shyness, guilt, low self-esteem and ambition, indifference, passivity, and lack of creativity.
Seligman notes that learned helplessness forms by about age eight. It can come from several sources: experiencing adverse events they couldn’t prevent (like being hurt by parents or teachers), the death of a loved one or pet, serious illness, parental divorce or fights, seeing helpless people (on TV or in real life), or parents’ constant readiness to do everything for their child (picking up toys, making the bed, dressing them).
No wonder learned helplessness is common. Entire companies and large work teams can suffer from it (it’s contagious and, research shows, most common in groups with authoritarian leadership). The only real remedy is psychotherapy. But it doesn’t always help, and people with learned helplessness rarely seek help. Why bother? They’re used to enduring.