Testing the Translational Validity of the Learned Helplessness Model in Humans: Effects of Stressor Controllability on Reward Processing and Social Functioning
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Learned helplessness (LH) theory proposes that uncontrollable stress, but not otherwise identical controllable stress, produces behavioral consequences relevant to depression. Although extensively validated in animal models, the extent to which experimentally induced uncontrollability in humans reproduces depression-related behavioral alterations remains unclear. Here, we conducted one of the largest experimental investigations of human LH to date, using a preregistered yoked-control design in which participants were exposed to identical aversive stimuli but differed in their ability to control stimulus termination. We first examined whether uncontrollability impaired performance on a classic LH outcome measure, the anagram task. We then assessed its effects across multiple depression-relevant domains, including reward learning, effort-based reward motivation, and social behavior. Uncontrollability did not produce the broad behavioral impairments predicted by classical LH theory. Anagram performance showed effects in the expected direction but did not meet preregistered criteria for successful LH induction. Similarly, uncontrollability did not alter reward learning or social behavior, including social submissiveness and social avoidance. In contrast, uncontrollability selectively affected effort-based decision-making by reducing sensitivity to reward magnitude and probability when participants evaluated whether to exert effort for potential rewards. These findings suggest that acute experimentally induced uncontrollability in healthy adults does not produce a generalized depression-like behavioral syndrome but may selectively influence reward valuation processes underlying motivated behavior. More broadly, our results highlight the importance of identifying which components of depression-related dysfunction are reliably captured by laboratory models of stress controllability.
Source: PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints)
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7223044647