1. The attractiveness of choice alternatives when freedom to choose is eliminated by a social agent.
- Author
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Hammock, Thomas, Brehm, Jack W., Hammock, T, and Brehm, J W
- Subjects
PSYCHOLOGICAL reactance ,CHOICE (Psychology) ,DESIRE ,ELIMINATION (Mathematics) ,BEHAVIOR - Abstract
The article explores the condition that happens to the desirability of two choice alternatives when one of them is eliminated by a second person. The increase in desirability for an eliminated choice alternative should also occur when the elimination is carried out by another person rather than simply by impersonal events. According to a theory, when a person feels he is free to engage in a given behavior if he wants to, elimination of that freedom will amuse "psychological reactance" in him. Psychological reactance is defined as a motivational state directed toward the re-establishment of the eliminated freedom. In a choice situation in which a person can select any one of several alternatives, the individual may be conceived as having the freedom "to have" each alternative prior to his making a selection. When there are only two choice alternatives, unlike the case in which there are several, the elimination of one of them practically eliminates all freedom in the situation. For not only is one alternative made unavailable but the only remaining behavioral possibility is to select the other alternative.
- Published
- 1966
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