Summary: Reactance is an emotional reaction in direct contradiction to rules or regulations that threaten or eliminate specific behavioral freedoms. It can occur when someone is heavily pressured to accept a certain view or attitude. Reactance can cause the person to adopt or strengthen a view or attitude that is contrary to what was intended and also increases resistance to persuasion. An example of such behavior can be observed when an individual engages in a prohibited activity in order to deliberately flaunt the authority who prohibits it, regardless of the utility or disutility that the activity confers. People using “reverse psychology” are playing on at least an informal awareness of reactance, attempting to influence someone to choose the opposite of what they request.

Reactance also explains denial as it is encountered in addiction counseling. According to William R. Miller “Research demonstrates that a counselor can drive resistance (denial) levels up and down dramatically according to his or her personal counseling style.” Use of a “respectful, reflective approach” described in Motivational Interviewing and applied as Motivation Enhancement Therapy (MET), rather than by argumentation, the accusation of “being in denial” and direct confrontations, lead to motivation to change and avoid the resistance and denial, or reactance, elicited by strong direct confrontation. For a complete review of how confrontation became popular in addiction treatment, see Miller, W.R. & White, W

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Psychological Reactance and Promotional Health Messages: The Effects of Controlling Language, Lexical Concreteness, and the Restoration of Freedom

Recent social influence research utilizing psychological reactance theory (J. W. Brehm, 1966) has focused on how reactance motivates message rejection due to threats to perceived freedoms posed by controlling language. Although reactance has been shown to increase message rejection and source derogation, persuasive appeals employing alternative forms of restoration of freedom, as suggested by the theory, have received little if any empirical scrutiny.

The present study manipulated the levels of controlling language and lexical concreteness within health messages targeting a young adult population. Results show a number of negative outcomes associated with the use of controlling language but suggest more positive outcomes associated with the use of restoration postscripts. Findings also indicate that relative to abstract language, messages using concrete language receive more attention, are viewed as more important, and generate more positive assessments of the source.

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