The present invention relates to an operator control element, in particular a joystick, comprising a housing, an activation lever which is mounted in the housing so as to be pivotable about a pivot point, and a resetting unit for making available a resetting torque for resetting the activation lever from a deflected state into a neutral state. In order to specify an operator control element which makes available a haptic force feedback which is intrinsically safe, the invention proposes that the operator control element comprises an actuator unit which is operatively connected to the resetting unit, wherein the actuator unit is designed to perform limited modulation of the resetting torque, wherein in the case of a lower modulation limit the resetting torque in the deflected state is greater than zero.