Attitude Formation & Persuasion Via Reactance: No, You Can't – Yes, I Can!
This study was designed to fill a significant gap in how psychological reactance theory (PRT; Brehm, 1966) is traditionally used in social psychological experiments. This study attempted to show that PRT can be used as a method to induce positive attitude formation. There is a need to understand how motivation to restore freedom (the driving force behind PRT) can be harnessed as a tool to persuade in a manner incongruent to typical persuasion techniques and form evaluations of attitude objects, and how the affective component of PRT can be used as a form of evaluative conditioning. The study consisted of 144 participants collected from MTurk. Both repeated measures ANOVA and double sequential mediation analyses were employed to investigate hypotheses; the results suggested that the attempt to induce reactance was unsuccessful. Both repeated measures ANOVA and double sequential mediation analyses were employed to investigate hypotheses. While the ANOVA did not yield significant results in terms of attitude change, thus failing to support Hypothesis 1, the double sequential mediation analysis revealed a direct impact of the experimental manipulation on increasing the intention to obtain nootropic supplements (b = 2.335, SE = .515, t = 4.533, p < .0001), supporting Hypothesis 2. However, the indirect effects through message evaluation or Psychological Reactance Theory (PRT) scale scores were not significant and failed to support Hypothesis 3.
Attitude Formation, Attitudes, Mediation, Persuasion, PRT, Reactance, Psychology
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