Culture, Self and the Emergence of Reactance: Is there a "Universal" Freedom?

Eva Jonas , Verena Graupmann , Daniela Niesta Kayser , Mark Zanna , Eva Traut-Mattausch , Dieter Frey

In this article we suggest that independent vs. interdependent aspects of the self yield different manifestations of psychological reactance and that this is especially relevant in a cross-cultural context. In Studies 1, 2 and 4 we showed that people from collectivistic cultural backgrounds (individuals holding more interdependent attitudes and values) were less sensitive to a threat to their individual freedom than people from individualistic cultural backgrounds (individuals holding more independent attitudes and values), but more sensitive if their collective freedom was threatened. In Study 3 we activated independent vs. interdependent attitudes and values utilizing a cognitive priming method and yielded similar results as the other studies hinting at the important causal role of self-related aspects in understanding reactance in a cross-cultural context.

Mots clés: Reactance theory; culture; self

Domaines: Psychologie et comportements

Eva Jonas, Verena Graupmann, Daniela Niesta Kayser, Mark Zanna, Eva Traut-Mattausch, et al.. Culture, Self and the Emergence of Reactance: Is there a "Universal" Freedom?. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2009, 45 (5), pp.1068. ⟨10.1016/j.jesp.2009.06.005⟩. ⟨hal-00709549⟩