The illusion of external agency

People typically underestimate their capacity to generate satisfaction with future outcomes. When people experience such self-generated satisfaction, they may mistakenly conclude that it was caused by an influential, insightf ul, and benevolent external agent. In three laboratory experiments, partici pants who were allowed to generate satisfaction with their outcomes were es pecially likely to conclude that an external agent had subliminally influen ced their choice of partners (Study I), had insight into their musical pref erences (Study 2), and had benevolent intentions when giving them a stuffed animal (Study 3). These results suggest that belief in omniscient, omnipot ent, and benevolent external agents, such as God, may derive in part from p eople's failure to recognize that they have generated their own satisfactio n.