Anca M. Miron

Reactance Theory - 40 Years Later

Abstract: In this paper we review the basic assumptions formulated by Jack Brehm in 1966 in his theory of psychological reactance and we sample some interesting directions of research on reactance that have been carried out by social psychologists during the last 40 years. We conclude that although there has been impressive development in the reactance research, more exciting avenues of investigation lie ahead. Throughout the paper we outline some of these future directions.

Motivated Shifting of Justice Standards

Three studies test whether group members strategically shift the standard of judgment they use to decide whether a particular ingroup action was unjust. In Study 1, individuals who were highly identified with their ingroup set higher confirmatory injustice standards than low identifiers—they needed more evidence to conclude that their group acted unjustly. This led to reductions in judgments of harm and diminished collective guilt. In Study 2, group identification was experimentally manipulated and the results of Study 1 were replicated. In Study 3, stronger support is provided for the motivational nature of this process. Specifically, the motivation to shift the standard upward was decreased by providing group members with an opportunity to self-affirm at the group level. Participants who self-affirmed set lower confirmatory standards of injustice, rated the harm as more severe, and experienced greater collective guilt than, those not self-affirming. Implications of this quantitative standard shifting are discussed.

Collective Guilt as Distress over Illegitimate Intergroup Inequality

We examine how appraisals of the legitimacy of gender inequality affect mens experience of collective guilt. We tested two potential routes by which perceiving intergroup inequality as legitimate might undermine collective guilt: via reductions in empathy for the disadvantaged outgroup or via reductions in the distress experienced when confronted with the suffering of the outgroup. In the first study (N= 52), we measured legitimacy appraisals, and in the second experimental study (N= 73) we manipulated the legitimacy of gender inequality. In both studies, reductions in self-focused distress mediated the effect of legitimacy appraisals on collective guilt, while other-oriented empathy did not. These effects suggest that collective guilt is a self-focused emotion that emerges when members of a dominant group perceive their relationship with a disadvantaged outgroup to be illegitimate.

Affect as a motivational state

Using Brehms (1999) intensity of emotion paradigm, we investigated whether basic positive or negative affect operates like a motivational state. We focused on one of the most basic affects, the sensory affect experienced when eating food. Participants tasted a delicious chocolate truffle (Study 1) or some bitter chocolate (Study 2) and were exposed to either a weak, moderately strong, or a very strong reason for feeling an opposing-valence affect or to no reason. In line with the predictions, the affect that participants reported in response to chocolate functioned like a motivational state as its intensity was a cubic function of the importance of the reason for feeling an opposing affect. We discussed the implications of these findings for the conceptualisation of affect and consider several applications for food advertising and consumer rating research.

Does happiness function like a motivational state

According to Brehms intensity of emotion theory, if an emotion has motivational properties, its intensity should be non-monotonically affected by factors similar to those determining the intensity of motivational states. These factors are called deterrents. In the case of emotion, one category of deterrents consists of factors that can potentially interfere with feeling the emotion, such as reasons for not feeling the emotion. Two experiments were carried out to examine whether happiness is a motivational state and, thus, if its intensity is non-monotonically determined by the importance of reasons for not feeling happy. We expected happiness to be reduced by a low importance reason for not feeling happy, to remain high in the presence of a moderately important reason, and to be reduced or eliminated by a very important reason. Both experiments supported the cubic function that results from these expectations, and when the results of the two studies were combined, each of the individual legs of the cubic function was found to be reliable along with the cubic function itself. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed.

Deterring Anger and Anger-Motivated Behaviors

Two experiments were carried out to explore an anger-reducing strategy based on Brehms emotional intensity theory. According to this theory, anger can be reduced indirectly by interfering with the feeling of anger rather than by dealing directly with the source of anger. One strategy involves providing the angered person with a reason for feeling happy. We predicted that anger intensity would be reduced not only by a large reason for feeling happy, such as a large gift, but also by a small reason, like a tiny gift. A medium-size gift was expected to maintain anger at approximately its instigated level. Both experiments instigated anger by personal insult and then measured the intensity of felt anger and retaliation after either no further treatment, or a small, a moderate, or large irrelevant gift was presented. The results for felt anger and retaliation confirmed our theoretical expectations.

Accounting for group differences in appraisals of social inequality: Differential injustice standards

We tested whether differential appraisals of inequality are a function of the injustice standards used by different groups. A confirmatory standard of injustice is defined as the amount of evidence needed to arrive at the conclusion that injustice has occurred. Consistent with a motivational shifting of standards view, we found that advantaged and disadvantaged group members set different standards of injustice when judging the magnitude of gender (Study 1) and racial (Study 2) wage inequality. In addition, because advantaged and disadvantaged group members formed - based on their differential standards - divergent appraisals of wage inequality, they experienced differential desire to restore inter-group justice. We discuss the implications of promoting low confirmatory standards for changing perceptions of social reality and for motivating justice-restorative behaviour.

Music choice as a sadness regulation strategy for resolved versus unresolved sad events

This research examined individuals’ preference for happy music when dealing with resolved versus unresolved sad events. In experiment 1 (N = 49), participants dealing with unresolved sad events were more likely to select music that was happy, exciting, upbeat, and active than those dealing with resolved sad events. Unresolved sadness participants also wanted to listen to music that was significantly happier, more exciting, more upbeat, and more active than the music selected by the resolved sadness participants. In experiment 2 (N = 79), we employed a ‘mood-freeze’ procedure to investigate whether participants in the unresolved sadness condition were motivated to select happy music in order to cope with their unresolved sad events. Specifically, we tested whether these individuals would still be motivated to select happy music if they were led to believe they could not regulate their feelings of sadness. As predicted, participants whose sadness was ostensibly frozen (unresolved/mood-freeze condition) and participants in resolved sadness condition were significantly less likely to select happy music, and wanted to listen to music that was less happy compared to those in the unresolved/control condition. These findings suggest that choice of happy music by the individuals dealing with unresolved sad events is motivated.

Young adults’ concerns and coping strategies related to their interactions with their grandparents and great-grandparents with dementia:

Young adults’ concerns and coping strategies related to their face-to-face interactions with their grandparents/great-grandparents with dementia were explored through the lens of a solidarity-conflict conceptual framework. Participants indicated concerns about their inability to maintain the relational connection, not knowing what to say or how to behave, their lack of perspective-taking skills and emotion-regulation strategies, interacting with an ever-changing other, as well as concerns about other co-participants in the interaction. Participants’ coping strategies were driven by two interaction motives: maintaining solidarity (e.g., desire to maintain and improve the interaction with the grandparent by seeking the other’s company, loving the other, and maintaining the other’s personhood) and dealing with conflict (e.g., dealing with self-focused concerns about lack of skills and knowledge by engaging in substitute avenues for communication and down-regulating negative affect). Implications for improving interactions between young adults and their grandparents/great-grandparents with dementia are discussed.

Perspective taking, empathic concern, and perceived humanness of people with dementia

ABSTRACT Past work has documented the detrimental psychological and health outcomes of negative age stereotypes and dehumanization of older adults. We investigated the role of perspective taking in enhancing positive perceptions of humanness of older individuals with dementia. To manipulate perspective taking, participants either imagined the situation of an older woman with dementia (n = 35), remained objective and detached (n = 37), or received no instructions (n = 35). We measured evidence of impairments of humanness needed to conclude personhood loss for the woman with dementia (i.e., humanness standards). Compared to stay-objective participants, imagine-other and no-instructions participants asked for more evidence of impairments of uniquely human characteristics, but not of human nature characteristics, in order to conclude personhood loss for the woman with dementia. Empathic concern for the woman with dementia mediated this effect. We discuss the importance of studying perceptions of personhood of those with dementia with a focus on the person with dementia and his or her social and personal connections with others. Strategies for developing and maintaining healthy relationships with persons with dementia based on active perspective taking are also discussed.