Humans are complex beings. Often we react to an idea in a negative or agressive way, when actually, the idea is quite good.
Why? We’re all logical beings, right? This is reactance at work.
Innovation, change and reactance
Psychologist Jack Brehm coined the term reactance in 1966. It covers the human behavours around resistance to new ideas or persuasion that results in hostility and flouting of authority. Fundamentally, we do not like to be told what to do, think or like, and this results in negative behaviour that is not always appropriate. Reactance is a great stifler of innovation and change.
A study by Fitzsimmons and Lehmann found that when an expert gave advice that was contrary to people’s opinions, they became even more likely to hold on to their existing positions despite new facts. They found that when people read negative reviews of products they love, they were more likely to repurchase it than if they had just read a positive review of that product.
Crazy, right? Just human.
We all have differing levels of reactance. The higher your reactance, the more likely you are to act in spite of the situation at hand. Another study, by Wu & Cutright showed that people who identified as highly reactant would strongly resist expert opinion about their own choices, and would go as far as choosing the opposite of what they would choose normaly, just to prove the experts wrong.
“Reactant people who were told they were brand concious were more likely to choose no-name jelly beans, as if to prove the quiz results wrong, but if they were told they were not brand concious, they went for the Jelly Bellys.”
- Andrew O’Connell, Reading the Public Mind, HBR, Oct 2010.
Reactance is also responsible for people resisting changes to their behaviour or business processes. We all encounter it, and it can be very frustrating. Studies show that the best way to overcome this resistance is to wrap the request for change in a narrative. Tell a story and the fear of change or reactant behaviour is much less likely to be triggered.
There are physical triggers for reactance too, Levav & Zhu found that restricting peoples physical freedom resulted in higher occurrences of reactant behaviour. If you want consumers to act predictably, to accept your messages and buy into your product offerings, then the findings of this study imply that it is best to provide an open retail space for them to make their decision in.
It is interesting then, that Apple’s stores are all nice wide, open spaces. The company who’s slogan is ‘think different’ have either accidentally, or intentionally, designed their stores in a way is encouraging you to “think the same”. Curious.
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