ABSTRACT
Communication scholars recently began to utilize psychological reactance theory (PRT) as a theoretical framework to explore why certain health messages are ineffective (Burgoon, Alvaro, Grandpre, & Voulodakis, 2002). PRT explains how individuals respond to the threat or elimination of a freedom and assumes that people cherish their ability to choose among alternatives in a particular situation (Brehm, 1966). In essence, a persuasive message that threatens or eliminates an individual’s freedom to choose among a given behavior or alternatives to a behavior will trigger reactance. Comprised of anger and negative cognitions, reactance essentially motivates people to reassert their threatened or eliminated freedom (Dillard & Shen, 2005). Further defined, scholars have distinguished state and trait reactance and have developed reliable and valid measures to assess each construct (Dillard & Shen, 2005; Shen & Dillard, 2005).
