Reactance,the self,and its group: When threats to freedom come from the ingroup versus the outgroup

We investigated the assumption that independent versus interdependent self‐construals yield different manifestations of psychological reactance in different group contexts. We expected collectivists (interdependent) to value the collective freedom of an ingroup more in face of an outgroup threat than individualists (independent) who should be protective of their individual freedom especially within an ingroup. In Study 1, we showed that collectivists (Taiwanese students) did not show reactance when a threat to their freedom of choice originated in the ingroup, but they did show reactance when it originated in an outgroup. In Study 2, Austrian students showed more reactance the more interdependent their self‐construal was when confronted with an outgroup restriction. However, the more independent Austrian students' self‐construal was, the more reactance they showed when the threat came from the ingroup. Priming an independent (versus interdependent) self‐construal in Study 3, we again observed more reactance when freedom was restricted by the ingroup. The findings underline the importance of understanding psychological reactance as a socially situated phenomenon. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boosting the Potency of Resistance: Combining the Motivational Forces of Inoculation and Psychological Reactance

The efficacy of inoculation theory has been confirmed by decades of empirical research, yet optimizing its effectiveness remains a vibrant line of investigation. The present research turns to psychological reactance theory for a means of enhancing the core mechanisms of inoculation—threat and refutational preemption. Findings from a multisite study indicate reactance enhances key resistance outcomes, including: threat, anger at attack message source, negative cognitions, negative affect, anticipated threat to freedom, anticipated attack message source derogation, perceived threat to freedom, perceived attack message source derogation, and counterarguing. Most importantly, reactance‐enhanced inoculations result in lesser attitude change—the ultimate measure of resistance.     

Beyond a Commodity Theory Analysis of Censorship: When Abundance and Personalism Enhance Scarcity Effects

The study of censorship offers fertile ground to test hypotheses derived from commodity theory. The aim of this research was to show the limits of commodity theory as it is presently constituted and to demonstrate how reactance and personalism may explain some supply-demand effects. In the first study, subjects were either explicitly given the freedom to have access to a communication or were not given this freedom. They learned either that subjects in previous sessions had heard the communication or that they had not heard the communication. They were then told that the communication had been censored and they would not have access to it. Subjects who had been given the explicit freedom to hear the tape and those who believed others had heard the tape increased their desire for the communication compared to a no-censor control condition. In the second study, the nature of the censor was varied. Subjects believed that either they, their university group, or all people were excluded from having access to a communication. The more personal the censorship, the more subjects wanted to hear the tape and changed their attitude toward the position to be advocated (compared to no-censor or accidental censor conditions). Results suggest that when individuals do not have access to a commodity, their desire for it increases positively in relation to the number of other people who have the commodity and the personalism involved in the threat to freedom. These data argue that the distribution of supply is an important factor in determining the supply-demand relationship.     

Reactance and the dynamics of disagreement: multiple paths from threatened freedom to resistance to persuasion

Many experiments show that threats to attitudinal freedom create reactance, but the underlying dynamics of reactance‐based disagreement have not received much attention. The present experiments identified two paths from threats to disagreement. In one path, threats to attitudinal freedom directly motivate disagreement; in the other, negative cognitive responses mediate the threat's effect on disagreement. Two experiments demonstrated the causes and consequences of each path from threat to persuasion. When a communicator threatened freedom at the beginning of the message, unfavorable cognitive responses (counterarguing, negative perceptions of the source's credibility) fully mediated the effect of threat on disagreement. When the threat appeared at the end of the message however, threat had a direct, unmediated effect on disagreement (Experiment 1). The two paths had different consequences for sleeper effects: disagreement rooted in negative cognitive responses persisted, whereas disagreement directly motivated by the threat declined when the threat was removed (Experiment 2). Implications for reactance and for threat‐based sleeper effects are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Who Fights,Who Flees? An Integration of the LC4MP and Psychological Reactance Theory

ABSTRACT

This study tests the hypothesis that defensive message processing, like defensive behaviors in the real world, has two directions, fight-and-flight. The Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP) characterizes defensive message processing by increases in unpleasantness and arousal reports, and accelerated heart rate indicating either a focus on internal processing (internal thoughts) or the active withdrawal of cognitive resources from processing highly arousing and unpleasant media messages. However, the LC4MP has not included direct measures that allow discrimination between fight-and-flight responses. Psychological reactance theory (PRT) predicts defensive responses including anger and counterarguments (reactance) when media messages threaten viewers’ freedom and autonomy. We hypothesized that PRT provides the LC4MP with the appropriate measures (anger and counterarguments) needed to discriminate fight-or-flight responses. Results supported this prediction. Participants (N = 49 adult-smokers) high in defensive and low in appetitive reactivity (risk-avoiders) withdrew from the message (fled: characterized by low anger and counterarguments) while those high in appetitive and low in defensive reactivity (risk-takers) experienced reactance (fought: characterized by high anger and counterarguments) in response to freedom threatening antitobacco messages that are highly arousing and unpleasant. Moreover, both reactance and message withdrawal yielded the same cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses predicted by the LC4MP as indicators of defensive message processing. Theoretical and message design recommendations are discussed.     

Self-esteem and reactance: Further evidence of attitudinal and motivational consequences

The present experiments were designed to explore further the relationship between self-esteem and reactance within the domains of achievement and persuasion. Previous research in the achievement context has shown that self-esteem and reactance are positively related. Experiment 1 sought to extend this relationship into the persuasion setting. As predicted, a positive self-esteem/reactance relationship was obtained. The second experiment was designed to identify a factor that might moderate the relationship between self-esteem and reactance: degree of freedom threat. Previous research in the persuasion context has shown that the aforementioned self-esteem/reactance relationship is attenuated or even reversed when freedom threat is low rather than high. Experiment 2 sought to extend this relationship into the achievement context. As predicted, the positive self-esteem/reactance relationship was considerably weakened in the low-threat environment of Experiment 2, especially in comparison to previous research in which freedom threat was considerably higher. Taken together, the present and previous studies show consistent relationships between self-esteem and reactance across achievement and persuasion domains, suggesting that the essence of reactance is similar in these two domains. Practical implications are also discussed.     

Conversion theory and simultaneous majority/minority influence: Can reactance offer an alternative explanation?

This study tested whether reactance theory can account for private acceptance of a minority opinion under simultaneous majority/minority influence (reactance against majority rather than conversion toward minority). Subjects were either exposed to simultaneous majority /minority influence or to a majority source only. As predicted by conversion theory, subjects moved away from the majority only in private and in the presence of a consistent minority. In the absence of a consistent minority, subjects accepted the majority opinion in private, ruling out reactance as an alternative explanation.     

When communications collide with recipients' actions: effects of post-message behavior on intentions to follow the message recommendation

Two experiments investigated the processes through which post-message behavior (e.g., noncompliance) influences resistance to the message. Participants in Experiment 1 read preventive, consumer-education messages that either opposed the consumption of an alcohol-like product or recommended moderation. Half of the participants then tried the product, whereas the remaining participants performed a filler task. In the absence of trial, the two messages had the same effect. However, recipients of the abstinence-promoting preventive message who tried the product had stronger intentions to use the product in the future than recipients of the moderation message. This finding suggests that assessments of message impact may be inadequate unless an opportunity for trial is also provided. Results are interpreted in terms of self-perception and cognitive dissonance and contrasted from psychological reactance.     

Reactance,Attribution, Equity,and the Help Recipient1

The relevance of social psychological theory for understanding the helping relationship from the recipient's perspective and for designing efficient and humane helping systems is examined. Negative feelings associated with seeking or receiving help may occur when recipients feel threatened with loss of freedom (reactance), interpret their help-seeking as a sign of inadequacy (attribution), or feel uncomfortably indebted (equity). Studies supporting each of these theories, and a program of research which contrasts helper vs. recipient-initiated assistance, are reviewed. Findings suggest that helper-initiated aid leads to higher utilization of services and better recipient feelings. These results are interpreted as supporting attribution in contrast to reactance theory concepts. A field study in a welfare setting extends laboratory findings, and shows that current practice which requires welfare recipients to initiate requests for service may effect savings via lowered requests for service at the expense of recipients who really need help but are inhibited from requesting it.     

When reactance effects persist despite restoration of freedom: Investigations of time delay and vicarious control

Two studies are reported indicating that changes in attractiveness induced by psychological reactance are eliminated by a restoration of freedom only if the restoration occurs immediately following the threat. When the restoration was delayed, changes in attractiveness were attenuated but were still significant, no matter whether the restoration occurred by chance or was under subjects' vicarious control. A threat immediately followed by a restoration, however, may be perceived as one event, and thus may not be very threatening. Therefore, the absence of reactance effects after immediate restoration may be due to a weak induction of reactance rather than to a reduction of reactance. To this extent, the incomplete reduction of reactance effects found after delayed restoration, on the other hand, calls into question earlier conclusions (based on immediate restoration) that reactance is completely reduced by restoration of freedom and that reactance effects will no longer be obtained.     

Culture, self, and the emergence of reactance: Is there a “universal” freedom?

In this article we suggest that independent vs. interdependent aspects of the self yield different manifestations of psychological reactance and that this is especially relevant in a cross-cultural context. In Studies 1, 2, and 4 we showed that people from collectivistic cultural backgrounds (individuals holding more interdependent attitudes and values) were less sensitive to a threat to their individual freedom than people from individualistic cultural backgrounds (individuals holding more independent attitudes and values), but more sensitive if their collective freedom was threatened. In Study 3 we activated independent vs. interdependent attitudes and values utilizing a cognitive priming method and yielded similar results as the other studies hinting at the important causal role of self-related aspects in understanding reactance in a cross-cultural context.     

Psychological Reactance and Adolescents' Attitudes Toward Tobacco-Control Measures

The theory of psychological reactance predicts that, to the extent that smoking-control measures are perceived as threatening the individual's freedom to choose among behavioral alternatives, they may be met with resistance. Data were collected from a national representative sample of 2,400 young people (ages 16–20) by telephone interviews. Dispositional reactance was shown to be associated with smoking. Principal components analyses revealed that a distinction should be made between attitudes toward weak and attitudes toward strong smoking-control measures. Attitudes toward strong measures were particularly negative among regular smokers. Among regular smokers, dispositional reactance was found to be significantly associated with attitudes toward strong tobacco-control measures. Processes of psychological reactance deserve attention when designing smoking control programs.     

The roles of self-esteem and self-consciousness in the Wortman-Brehm model of reactance and learned helplessness

The present experiments were designed to study the conditions under which failure would enhance or inhibit subsequent task performance. Based on the theory of Wortman and Brehm (1975), it was expected that small amounts of failure would produce reactance (manifested by improved performance at a subsequent task), whereas large amounts would lead to learned helplessness (i.e., impaired later performance). It was further expected that individual differences in self-esteem and private self-consciousness would serve as moderator variables for the above effects. In Experiment 1, subjects were exposed to either a small amount of failure or no failure before working on an anagrams task. As predicted, subjects high in self-consciousness, who have shown greater reactance arousal in attitude change studies, performed better on the anagrams task than subjects low in self-consciousness in the small-failure condition, but not in the no-failure condition. Further analyses revealed that this Self-Consciousness X Small Failure interaction was attributable to the performance data of the low, but not the high self-esteem subjects. Experiment 2 was designed to replicate and extend these results. Subjects were pretreated with either a small amount of failure, an extended amount of failure, or no failure before working on the anagrams task. A significant Self-Esteem X Helplessness Training interaction emerged. Relative to the no-failure condition, in which the two self-esteem groups did not differ, low self-esteem participants (low SEs) performed marginally better than did high self-esteem individuals (high SEs) in the small-failure condition but significantly worse than high SEs in the extended-failure condition. The effect of private self-consciousness was considerably weaker in this study, possibly because the sample included few low SEs (who are especially influenced by self-focused attention) who were also relatively low in self-consciousness. Questionnaire data from Experiment 2 were consistent with the notion that enhanced performance reflected reactance, whereas impaired performance signified helplessness.     

Anticipated Guilt as Behavioral Motivation

The current study posits that messages used to elicit behaviors to help unknown others must present substantial perceptions of a threat and efficacy to be successful. Given that many prosocial helping messages depict a threat to unknown others, the current investigation proposed that anticipated guilt is a motivating force behind individuals' willingness to engage in behaviors to avert the unknown‐other‐directed threat. Specifically, this study hypothesized that messages which induce substantial perceptions of (a) threat, (b) response‐efficacy, and (c) self‐efficacy would result in feelings of anticipated guilt that subsequently motivate behavioral intent and, ultimately, behaviors to avert the threat to unknown others and avoid the future guilt that they might feel personally. Brehm's (1966) psychological reactance theory, however, notes that such appeals might result in reactance and thus decrease compliance with a message's prescribed actions. Two research questions were posed to determine (a) whether or not individuals experience reactance and (b) what effect, if any, reactance has on compliance. Additionally, participants' accuracy in forecasting guilt was assessed. The proposed model and research questions were tested by focusing on the topic of bone marrow donation. Participants were assigned randomly to one of three message conditions (control and two experimental messages), completed a questionnaire and returned to complete a follow‐up survey 7–10 days later. The data were consistent with the proposed model, and additional findings indicated that participants did not experience psychological reactance and were not accurate when forecasting future feelings of guilt.     

The Effectiveness of Couple and Individual Relationship Education: Distress as a Moderator

Current literature yields mixed results about the effectiveness of relationship education (RE) with low‐income participants and those who experience a high level of individual or relational distress. Scholars have called for research that examines whether initial levels of distress act as a moderator of RE outcomes. To test whether initial levels of relationship and/or individual distress moderate the effectiveness of RE, this study used two samples, one of couples who received couple‐oriented relationship education with their partner (n = 192 couples) and one of individuals in a relationship who received individual‐oriented RE by themselves (n = 60 individuals). We delivered RE in a community‐based setting serving primarily low‐income participants. For those attending with a partner, there was a significant interaction between gender, initial distress, and time. Findings indicate that women who were relationally distressed before RE reported the largest pre‐postgains. Those who attended an individual‐oriented RE program reported significant decreases in individual distress from pre to post, but no significant relationship gains. Findings also suggest that initial levels of distress did not moderate the effectiveness of individual‐oriented RE.     

Psychological reactance: factor structure and internal consistency of the Questionnaire for the Measurement of Psychological Reactance.

Psychological reactance, the theory that people resist attempts to constrain either their thoughts or their behaviors (J. W. Brehm, 1966), has been an influential concept in social psychology. In an attempt to measure reactance, J. Merz (1983) developed the Questionnaire for the Measurement of Psychological Reactance (QMPR). Subsequent researchers (S.-M. Hong & R. Ostini, 1989; R. K. Tucker & P. Y. Byers, 1987) have debated both the exact factor structure and the psychometric stability of the QMPR. In the present study, 898 undergraduates completed the QMPR. Factor analysis suggested that psychological reactance is multidimensional. The authors found 3 factors underlying the QMPR, but the QMPR provided unreliable estimates for each of those factors. According to the results, the QMPR as currently written is psychometrically unsatisfactory.     

Restrictive conditions for the occurrence of psychological reactance: Interpersonal attraction,need for social approval,and a delay factor

The purpose of the present experiment was to show that the occurrence of psychological reactance is diminished when a person a) estimates the freedom eliminating source of social influence as highly attractive, and b) shows strong need for social approval and that c) psychological reactance might be stored up when the actual freedom eliminating social influence is too strong. In an experiment with 3 phases female students served as Ss. Two partners (S and stooge) had to decide whether or not to answer an item from a set of everyday questions with two choice alternatives. In the case of a positive decision they had to give their judgments covertly. In the first phase the S decided whether to answer or not; then the stooge urged the S not to answer a special set of questions. In the second phase the stooge announced her decision whether to answer a question or not and she left out the ‘crucial’ items. In the third phase the S answered the items alone since the stooge left the room for a short time having good reasons. The independent variables were interpersonal attraction: high vs. low (manipulated by instruction) and social desirability: high vs. low (measured by median split-half of the scores of a German version of the Marlowe-Crowne-scale). Reactance was measured as the number of answers to the crucial items in phase 3 in relation to the previous phases. The delay effect of psychological reactance was tested by a comparison of answers in phase 2 and 3. The data lent support to the first (attraction) and third (delay) experimental hypotheses stated.     

Reactance,autonomy and paths to persuasion: Examining perceptions of threats to freedom and informational value

Autonomy, often associated with an open and reflective evaluation of experience, is sometimes confused with reactance, which indicates resistance to persuasion attempts. Two studies examined a path model in which autonomy and reactance predicted motivation following the provision of anonymous or source-identified health-risk information, via the mediation of perceived threat to decision-making freedom and of perceived informational value. Study 1 (N = 122) investigated alcohol consumption. The results showed that autonomy was positively related to autonomous motivation and intentions to drink responsibly. Reactance negatively predicted autonomous motivation in the source-identified information condition but positively predicted autonomous motivation and intentions in the anonymous information condition. Reactance negatively predicted attitudes through the mediation of perceived threat to decision-making freedom. Study 2 (N = 145) tested our hypothesized model for smoking behavior and replicated several of the Study 1 findings. Implications for our understanding of autonomy, reactance, and responses to risk-information are discussed.