Rebel Without a (Conscious) Cause: Priming a Nonconscious Goal for Psychological Reactance

Psychological Reactance is typically studied using conscious manipulations and individual-difference measures. We hypothesized that, similar to other goals, a reactance motive can be primed nonconsciously. In this experiment, participants were given an explicit expectation that a pill would improve their performance on an accuracy task, or they were not given this expectation. Participants also received a reactance or neutral prime. On a subsequent accuracy task, participants given both the reactance prime and the explicit accuracy expectation committed the most errors. The findings suggest that reactance can be nonconsciously primed, generating behavioral effects. Evidence supporting the goal-priming interpretation is also presented.