Learned helplessness: meaning, Seligman's experiment, the 2016 rethink and how to recover
CareOps editorial team · · 9 min read
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Read our full editorial standards →When something has failed no matter how many times you tried, it is hard to try again. Even when things change, “It won't work anyway” arrives first. Psychology has studied this pattern for decades under the name **learned helplessness**. Here is what it means, what Seligman's experiment found, how researchers reinterpreted it fifty years later, and how to start moving again in everyday life.
At a glance
- Learned helplessness is the tendency to stop trying after unpleasant experiences you could not escape, even once a way out appears. It comes from Seligman and Maier's 1967 animal experiments.
- In 2016 the same two researchers revised their theory: passivity is not learned but is the default response to prolonged bad events, and what we learn is that we can have control.
- So the way out is less about willpower and more about building experiences of influencing small things you can change. Behavioral activation applies this idea in daily life.
What does learned helplessness mean?
Learned helplessness refers to putting up with a situation instead of trying to escape it, after repeatedly experiencing unpleasant events you could not avoid, even once escape becomes possible. It became widely known after psychologists Martin Seligman and Steven Maier reported it in a 1967 experiment.
Their original explanation was this: when nothing you do changes the outcome, you learn that your actions don't matter, and that learning weakens later attempts. That is why the word “learned” is in the name. Fifty years later, though, the same researchers substantially revised this explanation (see below).
Seligman's learned helplessness experiment
It began in a laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania in the early 1960s. Dogs that had received mild shocks paired with a tone were placed the next day in a box where they could escape shock simply by jumping a low barrier, yet they often just waited the shock out instead of escaping. To isolate what was happening, Seligman and Maier compared three groups.
| Group | First experience | Later, in the escape box |
|---|---|---|
| Escapable shock | Pressing a panel with the nose stopped the shock | Generally escaped well |
| Yoked group | The same shocks, but nothing stopped them | Often stayed passive |
| No shock | Nothing happened | Generally escaped well |
The key is the second group. It received exactly the same shocks as the first group but could do nothing to stop them. So what produced the later passivity was not the shock itself but the experience of having no control.
Similar designs were later used with people. When researchers compared a group that could turn off loud noise with a button, a group that heard the same noise but could not turn it off and a group that heard nothing, most of the group without control failed to escape the noise in the next task. The same pattern appeared after unsolvable anagram puzzles, and people in that group occasionally said things like “Nothing worked, so why try?”
Learned helplessness fifty years on: the 2016 reinterpretation
In a 2016 paper in Psychological Review, Maier and Seligman reviewed decades of brain research and wrote that “the original theory got it backward.” In the face of prolonged bad events, passively enduring is not a learned response but the default one, and what is actually learned is that “this is something I can control.” When the front of the brain (the medial prefrontal cortex) detects control, it dampens that default response.
The same paper summarized research showing that animals that first experience escapable shock develop less passivity when they later face inescapable shock. This effect was fairly lasting and carried over to other situations. The authors speculated that these findings may have implications for treating depression. Most of the evidence comes from animal research, though, so it cannot be applied directly to human low energy or depression.
This reinterpretation changes the question. It is not “I have learned to be helpless” but “I haven't yet had enough experiences of being able to make a difference.” If so, the task is to create those experiences again, even in small ways.
Everyday examples of learned helplessness
Everyday life is very different from a shock box in a laboratory, but similar patterns can show up. Here are some illustrative examples.
- School: after studying hard many times without better grades, you think “It's no use” before even opening the material.
- Work: after your ideas in meetings are repeatedly ignored, you stop speaking up even when a good idea comes to mind.
- Relationships: when the same argument keeps repeating no matter how hard you try, you give up on raising the topic at all.
- Daily routines: after a few attempts at exercise or tidying didn't last, starting anything new feels heavy.
These patterns are not the same as laziness or a lack of willpower. They can be the result of repeated experiences where trying made no difference. It is worth checking again whether your current situation is still the same as before, or whether there is now some part you can influence, however small.
Learned helplessness and explanatory style: why some helplessness lasts
In 1978, Lyn Abramson, Seligman and John Teasdale reformulated learned helplessness in humans. They proposed that the experience of not being able to escape produces only brief helplessness on its own, and that how you explain the cause of the failure determines how long and how widely the helplessness spreads. Later studies largely supported these predictions.
| When you see the cause as | What you tell yourself | Helplessness tends to |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent | “This will never work” | Last a long time in that situation |
| Temporary | “This one was unusually hard” | Fade, so you try again |
| Pervasive | “Nothing I do ever works” | Spread to other situations |
| Specific to this | “This task just didn't suit me” | Stay with that one task |
In the explanatory style theory that grew out of this work, hope is described as the habit of expecting future bad events to be temporary, limited to the situation and controllable, rather than permanent, pervasive and uncontrollable. Simply noticing which way your thinking leans is a first step. You can explore how thoughts tilt one way in our guide to automatic thoughts.
Overcoming learned helplessness: building small experiences of control
If the 2016 reinterpretation is right, the key to getting out is not “more willpower” but experiences of having made a difference. Try the five steps below, starting small.
- Separate what you can and can't change: write down the problem and split it into two columns. Other people's reactions and the past go in the “can't” column; what you say, do and spend time on today goes in the “can” column. Put your energy only into the “can” column.
- Do one very small action: from the “can” column, pick one thing you can finish in ten minutes and actually do it. Moving first in small ways instead of waiting to feel better is the idea behind behavioral activation.
- Write down what you did: note briefly whether you did it and whether your mood felt even slightly different afterward. As small successes add up, the belief that you can do things, known as self-efficacy, grows.
- Try a different explanation: when words like “always,” “everything” or “anyway” come up, restate the thought with “this time,” “this task” or “not yet.” The goal is not forced positivity but finding words closer to the facts.
- Check your body and mood too: when you are short on sleep or worn out for a long time, even small actions are hard. If drained days keep coming, see our guide to overcoming lethargy for physical causes and a daily plan.
How strong is your sense of control right now?
The CareOps sense of control check (Pearlin Mastery) is not a learned helplessness test. Its seven items look at how much you feel you can influence what happens in your life, which can help you see where you are starting from. You can take it right away, with no login.
Try a self-assessment without signing inPearlin Mastery · Sense of controlIf you want to explore how much control you feel you have over your lifeStart the check →When to see a doctor or professional
If the feeling that nothing you do will help lasts more than two weeks, if low energy makes daily life hard to manage, or if you have lost interest in things you used to enjoy, it is time to look at depression as well. Don't carry it alone; talk with a mental health professional. Our guide to early signs of depression may also help.
If you want help building small experiences of control
Getting out of learned helplessness usually happens not all at once but as experiences of “this time I made a difference” add up. CareOps Maeumi is an AI counseling app that runs sessions with approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and behavioral activation, helps you find what you can change and choose a first step sized so you can do it, and picks up what you tried in the next session. Get the app
Frequently asked questions
- What is learned helplessness in simple terms?
- It describes putting up with a situation instead of trying to escape, after repeatedly experiencing unpleasant events you could not avoid, even once escape becomes possible. The concept comes from Seligman and Maier's 1967 experiments.
- What was Seligman's learned helplessness experiment?
- Dogs were split into three groups: one could stop shocks by pressing a panel, one received the same shocks but could do nothing, and one received no shocks. Later, in a box where jumping a barrier allowed escape, the group that had no control often stayed passive. It showed that the lack of control, more than the shock itself, mattered.
- Is learned helplessness the same as lethargy?
- No. Lethargy is an everyday word for having no energy or motivation, while learned helplessness is a research concept about trying less after experiences without control. Low energy has different causes for different people, so sleep, physical health and depression are worth checking too. Our guide to overcoming lethargy covers how to start moving again.
- Is learned helplessness a form of depression?
- It is not a diagnosis. Seligman studied learned helplessness as a laboratory model for understanding depression, and the 2016 paper speculated that it may have implications for treating depression. If the sense that nothing will help lasts more than two weeks and daily life is affected, it is a good idea to look at depression with a mental health professional.
- Can learned helplessness be overcome?
- According to the 2016 reinterpretation, passivity is the default response, and experiences of control can dampen it. In daily life, you can start by separating what you can and can't change, taking very small actions on the side you can change and writing down what you did. Behavioral activation is a structured way to do this.
Sources
- Seligman & Maier (1967), Failure to escape traumatic shock, Journal of Experimental Psychology
- Maier & Seligman (2016), Learned helplessness at fifty: Insights from neuroscience, Psychological Review
- Abramson, Seligman & Teasdale (1978), Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation, Journal of Abnormal Psychology
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