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reactance
You feel an immediate desire for what is forbidden.
Psychological reactance occurs when you perceive a threat to your freedom of choice.
When an option is removed or restricted, you automatically assign it higher value. This is not about the object itself, but about the reclaiming of your autonomy. You react to the pressure, not the product.
You want the choice more once you lose it.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Brehm, 1966
- What the check found
- Brehm's 1966 work specifically established that individuals are motivated to regain behavioral freedoms when they are threatened or eliminated.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.