Reactance Theory

INTRODUCTION
• «Reactance» is something that probably
happens to everyone, even if we don't know
what it is.
• Read on to get a better understanding of your
feelings and reactions to social pressure and
learn about the man who introduced the
theory, Jack Brehm.

2
• This theory states that when people are
restricted in some way they feel a strong need
to resist and fight back to gain their freedom.
• People who are told not to do something
often feel an urge to do the very thing they're
denied.

3
 What is Reactance?
• Reactance results from a (perceived) threat to
freedom.
• It is “a motivational state directed toward the
re-establishment of the threatened or
eliminated freedom, and it should manifest
itself in increased desire to engage in the
relevant behavior and actual attempts to
engage in it”

4
Jack Brehm and Reactance Theory
• American psychologist Jack Brehm first introduced
reactance theory in an article published in the Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology in 1966.
• This and further work on the topic gives us a reason
why people are motivated to rebel to forced decisions
and tells us what motivates these behaviors.
• Brehm went on in his career to explain and expand
upon the reactance theory, focusing on freedoms and
the choices people make when their freedom is
threatened.
5
 REACTANCE THEORY

• According to the reactance theory, "free behaviors" can be perceived

by the person and the individual must have sufficient abilities for
freedom action.
• A behavior should be associated with the freedom scheme in the
mind.
• Threats: The threat of free behavior, the threat of the time of the
behavior, the threat of how to act, open-ended threats, etc.
• The term "response" means both subjective and behavioral
responses. Emotional experiences such as anger, resentment, regret,
or the increase in the value given to the restricted option, the lowering
of the imposed one.
• Brehm says that the threat of freedom leads to increased self-direction
and enables the individuals to raise awareness of what they want,
their goals, and who they are. 6
7
The magnitude of the reactance is directly proportional to the following
three variables:

1. The importance of threatened or eliminated freedom.

2. The threat or proportion of freedom
3. The magnitude of the threat.

• This theory is also related to the terms reverse psychology,

streisand effect, justification and legitimacy in social
psychology.

• Especially, people can even use this basic theory of reactance

to their advantage. For example, some parents can have their
children cooperate using reverse psychology on them.

8
9
 REACTANCE REACTIONS AND EFFECTS
• Having control over their actions and behavior is one of people's
most important and valuable needs.
• In reality, people become distressed, angry, and even aggressive
at the real loss of freedom, or even the perceived violation of
freedom..

1. The desirability of threatened free behavior may increase.

However, this effect occurs when the person is aware of the adverse
reaction.
2. The threatened free behavior may become more important. In
order to regain freedom, the old situation will be tried to be
restored.
3. Free behavior can be directly re-established. If you tell someone
not to do a behavior, they will be more likely to do the a behavior.10
 REACTANCE STRIVING
Direct restoration of freedom: Finding solutions for gaining
the freedom directly.
For example: A teenage girl who meets with her boyfriend
secretly when she isn't allowed by her traditional family
Indirect restoration of freedom: Trying to suppress the
freedom need in one topic with other different freedom
behaviours.
For example: The same teenage girl who doesn't meet with
her boyfriend but smokes.
Aggression: Forcing the threaters for removing the threat
and using aggresiveness.
For example: Same teenage girl who fights with her parents
and attempts to suicide.
11
 WHAT IS REACTANCE MOTIVATION:
CATCHING THE STATE

• Although Brehm stated that reactance is “an

intervening, hypothetical variable” that cannot be
measured directly, studies tried to catch
reactance motivation with different instruments
such as self-report measures and physiological
or neuropsychological measures.

12
 SELF-REPORT MEASURES

• Some studies have investigated reactance in the

context of persuasion, as persuasive messages often
pose freedom threats to people.
• For example, in Dillard and Shen’s study (2005), a
persuasive message, such as “Flossing: It’s easy. Do it
because you have to!”, led to a negative attitude
toward flossing.
• This relationship could be explained via people’s
experienced reactance which consisted of anger and
negative cognitions. The negative attitude further
predicted people’s behavioral intention not to floss.
13
 PHYSIOLOGICAL AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL
MEASURES
• Guided by Brehm (1966), who noted that reactance
should be accompanied by physiological arousal,
research assessed people’s heart rate following a
freedom threat.
• Results depicted that when people experienced a
freedom threat by imagining being restricted from
renting a flat, their heart rate increased immediately.
• Research has also considered neuropsychological
parameters to directly measure reactance
motivation.
14
• In summary, reactance motivation can be
captured by using self report measures and
more directly by physiological and
neuropsychological measures.
• Those measures found that it is a state
consisting of a person’s experienced threat, his
or her emotional experience (e.g., anger),
cognitive processes (e.g., negative attitude),
and changes in physiological arousal and brain
activity.
15
 DETERMINANTS OF THE REACTANCE
• Reactance does not only occur when people's free
behavior is threatened.
• It also depends on the expectation of people to have
that freedom.
• Therefore, reactance occurs in conditions; when
people believe they have a certain freedom (that is,
they know they have the freedom to do something)
and they think they can perform a behavior.
• At the same time, the reactance also varies with the
subjective importance of freedom and the perceived
extent of the threat.

16
The subjective importance of freedom: the more
important the free behavior, the more reactance.

The perceived extent of the threat: i.e. the more

freedom threatened the more reactance.

17
18
• In the case of burkini, for example, women are
confident that they have the freedom to wear
whatever they want on the beach, and if we
think that the freedom to wear whatever they
want is very important to them in general,
they would perceive this restriction as quite
threatening, and their reaction would be too
much.

19
Belief In ability to restore freedom
• When reactance is stimulated, it also affects
other motivations.
• For example, it provides people with the
motivation to combat the threat and regain their
freedom.
• Therefore, reactance reactivity can also be
adapted as a threat to freedom, because when
people react they feel they can do it, regain their
freedom.
20
21
 VICARIOUS REACTANCE AND THE SELF

• How people respond to threats to liberty depends

largely on whether the threat affects important
aspects of them.
• Vicarious reactance: Reactivity to the threat of
freedom experienced by others.
• So people can also react when the freedom of others
is challenged.
• In this example, people who indirectly observed or
read the threat to liberty faced by another person
also showed strong reactance.

22
• For example, let's consider the example of Burkini,
although this ban only affects women wearing burkini, it
has led women all over the world to say 'wear whatever
you want' on the beach.
• Studies have shown that both types of threats to liberty
direct people to react, either based on their own
experience or indirectly.
• However, it also showed that whether people respond
more to a self-experienced threat or to an indirectly
experienced threat depends on how they identify
themselves and whether the threat affects aspects that
matter to them. 23
Self
• One of the factors that shape people's selves is their cultural
background.
• People from individualistic cultures, such as America and
Western Europe, define themselves by emphasizing their
individuality and independence from others.
• But people from collectivist cultures such as Asia, Africa, and
Southern Europe define themselves in relationships and
partnerships with others.
• This is evident in people's physiological, emotional, and cognitive
reactions.
• For example, indirectly restricted people have a later increase in
heart rate and more cognitive thoughts, such as an instant
increase in heart rate when they themselves are restricted and
more emotional thoughts (irritability, excitement). 24
 Which concepts is reactance related to?
• First of all, a concept directly related to incentives.
• The psychological reactivity theory is the basis of the
“scarcity-famine” principle of purchasing behaviors in
marketing communication, as it encourages you to
do the opposite.
• The value of the product, which we learn to be
"limited in number", is suddenly beginning to rise in
our eyes. And the limited number of expressions
actually gives us the ambition to own it. Thus, the
demand for the product that is less or limited
increases.
25
• Reactance is directly related to the concept of
persuasion.
• Prohibitions that develop into a race and a challenge
environment can be used as a means of persuasion.
One of the most effective aspects of persuading the
product to buy is to restrict the other.
• In the reaction theory, the "intolerable charm of
prohibitions" can also clearly affect the buying habit.
Because this attitude gives the message, will you
agree to what I impose on you.
• It targets ego and self esteem.

26
Psychological reactivity theory: loss of liberty

• This concept also includes Aggression.

• "According to the psychological reactivity theory

(Brehm, 1966), people want to maximize their
freedom of choice. If we perceive that our freedom
is threatened, we often get angry, behave negatively
and hostile.»
• We experience reactances in our daily life even
though we are not aware of it. For example, we had
a difficult quarantine process.
27
• “People may find areas where their freedom is restricted more attractive
over time. Being home for a long time and restricting their behavior resulted
in a loss of energy. Many people rushed to areas where they could relax
themselves and regain the energy they lost. Prohibitions were created
against the danger of disease, but people perceived this as an attack on
freedom. (Dr. Nevra Cem Ersoy,2020,İEÜ Psychology Department).
(Amerika’da maske takmanın özgürlüğü engellemesi görüşü gibi.)

• Dr. Ersoy said that “According to the reactivity theory, people whose choice
is limited do not remain indifferent to this situation. People can tend to get
rid of this situation by doing the behavior they are restricted to. In a sense,
restricted behavior becomes attractive to them. For example, going to the
hairdresser or barber at normal times was routine. Suddenly deprivation of a
routine action; it can lead many people to be found psychologically
attractive to barbers and hairdressers. "Even if he doesn't need it, he can go
there by developing a reaction because of his previously restricted feeling.«

• What is your restoration behaviors during Covid-19?

28
 The value of reactance

• "Why is it important to know that there is a structure

called reactance?
• Reaction is a common and natural response to the
threats present in everyone's life. Not reacting to
everything and being compliant can sometimes benefit
us, but we just need to understand reactance as
something undesirable that needs to be avoided or
reduced.
• Instead, its reactivity allows one to know and present
oneself in terms of motivation. It is a highly effective
mechanism in the formation of identity and create the ‘I
am’ patterns. 29
• Reaction is not desired for people who try to
persuade others.
• The resulting reaction can support people in
fighting for their values and desires (i.e., their
identity).
• Therefore, reactivity can be rejected not only as
a negative thing. But rather as a construct with
tremendous motivational power that clarifies
people about their important aspects and gives
them the energy to fight for those aspects. "
• While creating identity, we can create a
perception as they and us (in group). 30
 Evolutionary value

• Brehm wrote that reaction-emotion can have

'survival value'. Often in situations where they
can choose between different behavioral
alternatives, humans and other organisms
may have developed the capacity to choose
what is best for their suitability.

31
• Moreover, creating, defending, and restoring
situations in which the individual can choose
freely can increase vitality in himself/herself.
• Therefore, natural selection probably favored
individuals who not only perceived that their
freedom was threatened, but also acted in a
way to defend that freedom.
• Brehm described the psychological
mechanism by which humans (and possibly
many other species) are motivated to defend
their liberty, which is a kind of power-proving
mechanism. 32
 SUMMARY

‘People believe they possess certain freedoms.

When these freedoms are threatened, they can
experience psychological reactance, a motivational
state characterized by the strong desire to restore
freedom and actual behavioral attempts to do so.’

33