Does it make a difference who tells you what to do? : exploring the effect of social agency on psychological reactance

Nowadays, many advertising campaigns attempt to persuade people to perform a specific behavior. In response to such messages, people can comply and adapt their behavior in the proposed direction. However, people can also experience psychological reactance, which may lead to the complete opposite of the target behavior. In the present study, we were interested in the social nature of psychological reactance. According to Social Agency Theory [12], more social cues lead to more social interaction. We suggest that this also holds for psychological reactance. We argue that there is a positive relation between the level of social agency of the source of a message and the level of psychological reactance that this message can arouse. In an online study, participants received low-controlling or high-controlling advice about energy conservation. This advice was delivered either solely as text, as text with a still picture of a robotic agent, or as text with a brief film clip of the same robotic agent. Results showed that a high-controlling advisory message resulted in more reactance than a low-controlling advisory message. Confirming our expectancies, stronger social agency of the messenger led to more psychological reactance. Implications are discussed

Does it make a difference who tells you what to do? : exploring the effect of social agency on psychological reactance

Nowadays, many advertising campaigns attempt to persuade people to perform a specific behavior. In response to such messages, people can comply and adapt their behavior in the proposed direction. However, people can also experience psychological reactance, which may lead to the complete opposite of the target behavior. In the present study, we were interested in the social nature of psychological reactance. According to Social Agency Theory [12], more social cues lead to more social interaction. We suggest that this also holds for psychological reactance. We argue that there is a positive relation between the level of social agency of the source of a message and the level of psychological reactance that this message can arouse. In an online study, participants received low-controlling or high-controlling advice about energy conservation. This advice was delivered either solely as text, as text with a still picture of a robotic agent, or as text with a brief film clip of the same robotic agent. Results showed that a high-controlling advisory message resulted in more reactance than a low-controlling advisory message. Confirming our expectancies, stronger social agency of the messenger led to more psychological reactance. Implications are discussed

A theoretical and practical approach to a persuasive agent model for change behaviour in oral care and hygiene

There is an increased use of the persuasive agent in behaviour change interventions due to the agent‘s features of sociable, reactive, autonomy, and proactive. However, many interventions have been unsuccessful, particularly in the domain of oral care. The psychological reactance has been identified as one of the major reasons for these unsuccessful behaviour change interventions. This study proposes a formal persuasive agent model that leads to psychological reactance reduction in order to achieve an improved behaviour change intervention in oral care and hygiene. Agent-based simulation methodology is adopted for the development of the proposed model. Evaluation of the model was conducted in two phases that include verification and validation. The verification process involves simulation trace and stability analysis. On the other hand, the validation was carried out using user-centred approach by developing an agent-based application based on belief-desire-intention architecture. This study contributes an agent model which is made up of interrelated cognitive and behavioural factors. Furthermore, the simulation traces provide some insights on the interactions among the identified factors in order to comprehend their roles in behaviour change intervention. The simulation result showed that as time increases, the psychological reactance decreases towards zero. Similarly, the model validation result showed that the percentage of respondents‘ who experienced psychological reactance towards behaviour change in oral care and hygiene was reduced from 100 percent to 3 percent. The contribution made in this thesis would enable agent application and behaviour change intervention designers to make scientific reasoning and predictions. Likewise, it provides a guideline for software designers on the development of agent-based applications that may not have psychological reactance

Resistência/reatividade psicológica, impulsividade, memória operatória e flexibilidade cognitiva em adolescentes

Exame público realizado em 17 Julho 2014.Dissertação de mestrado realizada no âmbito do Mestrado em Psicologia Clínica.O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a relação entre a reatividade psicológica, a impulsividade (traço da personalidade) e funções executivas (memória operatória e flexibilidade cognitiva) em adolescentes. Participaram no estudo 213 adolescentes, da zona norte de Portugal, com idades compreendidas entre os 12 e os 18 anos de idade, inclusive, sendo 129 do sexo feminino e 84 do sexo masculino. Para a recolha de dados foi utilizado um questionário sociodemográfico, as Escalas de Reactividade Psicológica de Hong e da Reactividade Terapêutica de Dowd, que avaliaram a reatividade; o JTCI e o Stroop, utilizados para avaliar a impulsividade; a WISC III e WAIS III, para avaliar a memória operatória; e o Teste de Wisconsin, para avaliar a flexibilidade cognitiva. Os resultados mostraram associações positivas entre a reatividade e a impulsividade, mas não foi encontrada qualquer correlação entre a reatividade e a memória operatória. Quanto à flexibilidade cognitiva, foram encontradas correlações negativas entre a resposta emocional (reatividade) e os erros não perseverativos e correlações negativas entre a reatividade aos conselhos e a dimensão “falhas em manter a atitude” do teste Wisconsin. Estes resultados sugerem que a reatividade estará mais associada a traços da personalidade, como a impulsividade, e não tanto com funções executivas em adolescentes.Abstract: This study aimed to examine the relationship between psychological reactance, impulsivity (personality trait) and executive functions (working memory and cognitive flexibility) in adolescents. This study analyzed 213 adolescents, in northern Portugal, with aged between 12 and 18 including, with 129 female and 84 male. For the data collection was used a socio-demographic questionnaire, Hong Psychological Reactance Scale and Dowd´s Therapeutic Reactance Scale, who evaluated the reactance; the Robert Cloninger TCI-J personality test and Stroop, used to evaluate the impulsivity; WISC III and WAIS III, for avaluate working memory; and Wisconsin Test, for evaluate cognitive flexibility. The results showed positive associations between reactance and impulsivity, but no correlation between the reactance and working memory was found. Regarding cognitive flexibility, negative correlations between the emotional response (reactance) and nonperseverative errors were found and negative correlations between the reactance to advice and the “failure to maintain the attitude” of the Wisconsin test. These results suggest that the reactance will be more associated with personality traits such as impulsivity, and not so much with executive functions in adolescents

Targeting the automatic: Nonconscious behaviour change using technology

Digital interventions have great potential to support people to change their behaviour. However, most interventions focus on strategies that target limited conscious resources, reducing their potential impact. We outline how these may fail in the longer-term due to issues with theory, users and technology. We propose an alternative: the direct targeting of nonconscious processes to achieve behaviour change. We synthesise Dual Process Theory, modern habit theory and Goal Setting Theory, which together model how users form and break nonconscious behaviours, into an explanatory framework to explore nonconscious behaviour change interventions. We explore the theoretical and practical implications of this approach, and apply it to a series of empirical studies. The studies explore nonconscious-targeting interventions across a continuum of conscious attention required at the point of behavioural action, from high (just-in-time reminders within Implementation Intentions) to medium (training paradigms within cognitive bias modification) to low (subliminal priming). The findings show that these single-nonconscious-target interventions have mixed results in in-the-wild and semi-controlled conditions. We conclude by outlining how interventions might strategically deploy multiple interventions that target the nonconscious at differing levels of conscious attention, and by identifying promising avenues of future research