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autonomy
You feel compelled to restore your lost freedom.
Psychological reactance is a motivational state that arises when an individual's behavioral freedoms are threatened, which may lead them to resist the influence attempt to re-establish autonomy.
It is not a binary reaction to do the 'exact opposite' of a request; the behavioral response depends on the perceived importance of the freedom and the capacity to resist.
If you want someone to do something, stop telling them to.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Brehm, 1966
- What the check found
- Jack Brehm did publish 'A Theory of Psychological Reactance' in 1966, but the definition provided is an oversimplification that ignores the complexity of the motivational state.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.