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Where are the explainer threads on the role of "psychological reactance" (Brehm, 1966) and COVID? Especially as we sit perched at the intersection of identity-fueled political polarization and a politicized health crisis that is contingent upon individual behaviors...
FINE. let's go.
From Rosenberg and Siegel (2018), "Psychological reactance theory (PRT; Brehm, 1966) posits that when something threatens or eliminates people’s freedom of behavior, they experience psychological reactance, a motivational state that drives freedom restoration."
From Rosenberg and Siegel (2018), "Psychological reactance theory (PRT; Brehm, 1966) posits that when something threatens or eliminates people’s freedom of behavior, they experience psychological reactance, a motivational state that drives freedom restoration."
Brehm and Brehm (2013)
Persuasion folks - many in health communication - have used a combination of ANGER and COUNTERARGUMENTATION as a way of measuring/conceptualizing psychological reactance in practice. https://academic.oup.com/hcr/article-abstract/39/1/47/4093682
Who tends to be more reactant, you ask?
Well, according to work by Dowd, Pepper, and Seibel (2001),
"More reactant individuals were found to be less psychosocially healthy, less positive and more negative in developmental state attitudes, less trusting, more autonomous...
Well, according to work by Dowd, Pepper, and Seibel (2001),
"More reactant individuals were found to be less psychosocially healthy, less positive and more negative in developmental state attitudes, less trusting, more autonomous...
possessing a greater sense of identity, & less intimate than less reactant individuals...It appears that reactant individuals have elevated autonomy and identity over trust & intimacy. Reactance appears to derive from the earlier developmental stages more than the later stages."
Work by Brian Quick and his colleagues has helped unpack how "perceived freedom threat" contributes to psychological reactance in the context of health.
Here is another in the context of anti-tobacco messages: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15213269.2018.1476157?casa_token=a2roXK7USswAAAAA%3AfhIYjT_8otAlY86RG9SOghbrGivSyBv1eIwWAAgSXdZVV_06IBfvnnPDuRAQr9k7uZeU-b8ZGwUidw
Yeah. Shorter version: the "masks are unconstitutional" crowd and the "don't tell me I can't go to the bar crowd" have been activated through a deliberate weaponization of their "PERCEIVED FREEDOM THREAT" which ignites their psychological reactance...
... And based on many of their underlying traits (lack of trust, high autonomy) they are already prone to psychological reactance ANYHOW.
Given this literature and what we know about how this kind of messaging interacts with psychology, the deliberate framing of wearing masks and closing bars/restaurants as an "infringement of individual freedoms" is both exploitative and shameful.
