Who Feels Most in Control of Their Life?

Have you ever felt like you can handle whatever life throws at you? Researchers call that feeling "sense of mastery" — the belief that you can influence your life and get the outcomes you want. It matters because people with higher mastery tend to have better mental and physical health.

Our ability to feel capable is not just a personal trait, but is deeply shaped by our age, relationships, and society.

But until now, almost nobody had studied how mastery looks across different countries. This study changed that by surveying over 200,000 adults in 22 countries on six continents. The results were eye-opening. People in Mexico, Egypt, and Argentina reported the highest mastery, with about 88 to 90% saying they often or always feel capable.

High-income countries like the United States, Sweden, Spain, and Australia were close behind at around 86%. But at the bottom, Japan stood out dramatically — only 39% of Japanese respondents reported feeling that sense of capability. The Philippines (63%) and Tanzania (66%) were also lower. The study also found that mastery tends to rise with age, from 77% in young adults to 87% among people 80 and older. People who were married, employed, more educated, and attended religious services regularly also tended to report higher mastery.

Men reported slightly higher mastery than women in most countries, though the gap was small. Importantly, these patterns varied a lot from country to country — what predicted mastery in one place didn't always hold in another. The big takeaway? A strong sense of control over your life isn't limited to wealthy nations. It appears in many different cultural and economic contexts, and understanding what nurtures it could help people everywhere.