Psychological Reactance in Environmental Protection

According to research by Christos Kavvouris, people do not like to be ordered or rushed to do things, and are often skeptical of social campaigns and psychological reactance. Although this is a rather difficult phenomenon to recognize, understanding its definition and how it works can help you better respond when encountering similar situations in life.

Psychological reactance is a psychological motive that makes us feel uncomfortable or inhibited when faced with factors that can threaten our freedom to act according to our own will. The result of these negative reactions is often the opposite of the requested behavior as a way to express our individuality and independence. For example, at art exhibitions and displays, viewers often want to touch, move, lean on the artwork or walk into the installations.

Source: vccavietnam

People always have a very strong belief that they have the freedom to decide their own actions. However, there will be times when this belief is shaken by various causes or unavoidable situations. That is when the psychology of resistance appears, becoming a negative motivation created by the individual with the purpose of regaining the freedom that they think is being threatened. As a result, they can resist the actions that are advised or prescribed to restore their freedom. For example, even if you are encouraged to use paper cups to protect the environment, there is a high possibility that you will still deliberately choose to use plastic cups. This type of reaction is called direct restoration. Another way to react is to adjust your emotions to be more positive, such as thinking, “I was going to use a paper cup anyway!” or completely denying the previous emotions, as if it never happened.

So… What to do in this case?

One trick to preventing resistance is to reframe the experience so that it no longer feels like a threat to the recipient’s freedom and autonomy. Note that when someone suggests something to you, they are not trying to show superiority or control behavior. A recent study found that reminding participants that “they are free to decide what is good for them” after encouraging them to engage in a specific health habit, such as using sunscreen, was effective in reducing resistance. Other studies have shown that showing empathy and encouraging others to put themselves in the shoes of the person giving the advice significantly reduces negative emotions.

Source: Virinaflora

Another approach is to apply social psychology by focusing on social norms and their persuasive power. Social psychology can divide norms into two categories: injunctive norms and descriptive norms. Injunctive norms involve social sanctions; individuals are motivated to comply by pressure to comply because they want to avoid social sanctions for not following the norm. Descriptive norms, on the other hand, motivate individuals to comply because they think that if the majority of people perform a certain action, then it is the best or most correct way to handle it.

In fact, designing campaigns based on descriptive norms is also the most popular way, because they are much more likely to encourage people to act. Some examples of using descriptive norms in environmental recommendations include: “82% of students separate their waste at source”, or “Turn off appliances when not in use”.

However, sometimes descriptive norms can have the opposite effect, leading to a boomerang effect. More specifically, some studies using descriptive norms have found that groups of individuals either behave in the opposite way or are not affected at all by the appeal. In situations where it is difficult to make a choice between alternatives, tailoring appeals based on prescriptive norms can be more effective. This is because they have a longer lasting effect, and minimize the boomerang effect when used in conjunction with appeals based on descriptive norms. For example, instead of saying “Waste less, live more. Reduce – Reuse – Recycle!”, a simple statement like “Think about the environment” can be enough to encourage people to act.