Reactance Bias


 


     Psychological reactance or reactance bias is the urge to do the opposite of what you’re being told to do because you feel that your freedom to choose or do what you want is being constrained. I was reminded of this term this morning while I was biking around our neighborhood and saw this boy and a dog pissing side by side on a wall where a huge graffiti could be read: BAWAL UMIHI DITO!

     The dog, I thought, was even trying to piss on the graffiti itself, so there was a strong reactance there on the part of the dog.

     So when your mother tells you not to have an itsy-bitsy tattoo on your arm and you feel the urge to have your whole body covered with tattoos including your eyes and your private parts, that’s psychological reactance, and that is quite a strong reactance, stronger than the dog's motivation to piss on the graffiti. 

     And it's really not a good trait.

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