How “Too Much” Control Fuels Anxiety: A Translational Randomized Controlled Trial on Social Responsibility and Anticipatory Guilt

We developed a translational RCT to clarify how control discrepancy (specifically perceiving more control than desired) predicts heightened anxiety. The sample comprised 586 participants (M_age = 41.62). We found that changes in control discrepancy were driven by social responsibility and control discrepancy’s influence on anxiety was mediated by anticipatory guilt.