COVID-19
COVID-19 and the consequences of free behavior and threats to freedom have stimulated the interest of psychological reactance researchers. Health practices of handwashing, physical distancing, and mask-wearing are normative appeals that have reactance potential. Findings from Kang et al. (2021) suggest that normative appeals to health practices influenced threat to freedom but without negative cognitions resulting from an understanding of the consequences of COVID-19. Injunctive normative appeals than descriptive normative appeals were more likely to be perceived as threats to free behavior. Krpan and Dolan (2021) note that COVID-19 restrictive messages, though resulting in intention toward reactance, did not lead to behavioral reactance. Mask reluctance wearing emerging from reactance has implications for social distancing observance and propensity toward anti-vaccination (Taylor & Asmundson, 2021). Additionally, perceived threats devalue evaluation of protective behaviors and the pursuit of idiosyncratic goals (Reiss et al., 2020). Agency assignment of cause (i.e., human or virus as cause of COVID-19 virus) has implications for evoking reactance, including negative cognition, source derogation and anger, and having implications for health risk policies (Ma & Miller, 2021). Some other COVID-19 and reactance studies include: Scheid, Lupien, Ford, West, Carfora and Catellani (2021), De La Fuente et al. (2021), Kokkoris (2020), and Kirk and Rifkin (2020).
Table 2.1 summarizes research that focuses on psychological reactance as a state condition (i.e., influenced by the situation).
Table 2.1 Research on Situational Psychological Reactance.
| Author | Comments |
|---|---|
| Brehm (1966) | Psychological reactance theory formally presented in this monograph. |
| Brehm and Cole (1966) | Explored the effects of a favour on reactance arousal. This study found that the importance participants place on the behavioral freedom influences the arousal and magnitude of reactance. |
| Brehm and Sensenig (1966) | Examined social influence as a function of implied or attempted threat to freedom. Results from this study showed that when a person’s freedom to choice is usurped, the individual will experience psychological reactance and thus reject the influence. |
| Hammock and Brehm (1966) | Explored the attractiveness of alternatives when freedom is reduced or eliminated. The two experiments yielded the results that a choice alternative which is eliminated by another person will tend to become more attractive, and a choice alternative forced by another person will tend to become less attractive. |
| Kornberg et al. (1970) | Proposed how psychological reactance can provide a new perspective on understanding political behavior. Results support the application of reactance theory in the study of political behavior. |
| Linder and Crane (1970) | Analyzed the converging attractiveness of two alternatives as the time for a final decision approaches. This study found that the importance of the decision and the initial attractiveness of the alternative combined to arouse reactance within a short period of time. |
| Wicklund (1970) | Examined cognitive dissonance theory and reactance theory as theoretical explanations for regret when decision freedom is threatened. The results indicated that under conditions designed specifically to discriminate between the two theories, the prediction from reactance theory was supported while the prediction from dissonance theory was not. |
| Worchel and Brehm (1970) | Examined the effect of strong threats to a person’s freedom in adopting attitudinal position and the effect of responses to threat as a function of initial agreement or disagreement with the position of the communicator. Findings detected that persons who received freedom threatening communications in agreement with their own position tended to move away from the advocated position, while those in all other conditions tended to move toward the advocated position. |
| Linder et al. (1971) | Time prior to decision making was manipulated, with results supporting the hypothesis that the shorter the decision time the more likely attractiveness of alternatives converges. |
| Worchel and Brehm (1971) | Explored direct or implied restoration of freedom. Results from both experiments supported the hypothesis that restoration of freedom reduces the increase in desirability of the alternative which results from a threat to freedom |
| Berkowitz (1973) | The author reviewed studies that displayed individuals’ unwillingness to aid others and utilized reactance theory. |
| Andreoli, V.A., Worchel, S. & Folger, R. (1974) | Identified conditions necessary for the arousal of reactance by implication. This study showed that reactance can be aroused by implication (by observing another person’s freedom being threatened) and restored by implication (observing another person’s freedom restored). |
| Wicklund (1974) | Reviewed studies undertaken on reactance. |
| Brehm and Mann (1975) | Examined the effect of group conformity pressure on public and private opinions with regard to reactance. Results displayed that if importance of freedom is relatively great to the individual, both private and public compliance decrease, as group attraction increases. |
| Heilman and Toffler (1976) | Investigated the conditions under which the negative consequences of social influence attempts can be mitigated by freedom-affirming interventions. The results showed that in social situations individual’s concerns about their freedom were interpersonally motivated. |
| Miller (1976) | Assessed varied intensities of exposure of a persuasive message on attitude change and psychological reactance. This study showed that mere exposure enhances the evaluation of stimuli whereas overexposure dampens positive attitudinal effects. |
| Snyder and Wicklund (1976) | Examined the effect of exercising prior freedom and reactance. The two experiments of this study showed that when an individual exercises their freedom prior to it being threatened, they do so to prevent the onset of reactance. |
| Brehm and Weinraub (1977) | Applied the theory of reactance to the attractiveness of goal objects when impeded by barriers. This study found that two-year-old boys were more reactant than two-year-old girls and this was due either to perception of cues and culture. |
| Carver (1977) |
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