4
The Theory of Psychological Reactance
There are four essential elements to reactance theory: Freedom, threat to freedom,
reactance, and restoration of freedom. The notion of freedom is not freedom in general terms; it
is “not abstract considerations, but concrete behavioral realities” (Brehm & Brehm, 1981, p. 12).
However, the concept of free behaviors is defined broadly so as to include actions, as well as
emotions and attitudes (Brehm, 1966; Wicklund, 1974). Individuals possess freedoms only to the
extent that they have knowledge of them and perceive that they are capable of enacting the
behavior.
Given that an individual perceives a specific freedom, any force on the individual that
makes it more difficult for him or her to exercise that freedom constitutes a threat (Brehm, 1966;
Brehm & Brehm, 1981). Even an impersonal event, such as the weather can be viewed as a
threat, if it renders more difficult the exercise of a freedom. However, social influence as a threat
is most pertinent to questions of persuasive health communication. In fact, one of the basic
claims of the theory is that high pressure communicators are likely to be seen as threats
tofreedom (Brehm & Brehm, 1981; Wicklund, 1974).
Psychological reactance is “the motivational state that is hypothesized to occur when a
freedom is eliminated or threatened with elimination” (Brehm & Brehm, 1981, p. 37). The theory
contends that when a perceived freedom is eliminated or threatened with elimination, the
individual will be motivated to reestablish that freedom. Direct restoration of the freedom
involves doing the forbidden act. In addition, freedoms may be restored indirectly by increasing
liking for the threatened choice (Brehm, Stires, Sensenig, & Shaban, 1966; Hammock & Brehm,
1966), derogating the source of threat (Kohn & Barnes, 1977; Schwarz, Frey, & Kumpf, 1980;
Smith, 1977; Worchel, 1974), denying the existence of the threat (Worchel & Andreoli, 1974;
Convention