The effect of psychological reactance on acceptance of campaign message: A case of "stop texting while driving" campaign in college students

Abstract

This study is to investigate how the psychological reactance generates impact on acceptance of the campaign message of “stop texting while driving” among college students. A total of 180 undergraduate students completed the online survey asking for their cognitive and affective responses to the highor low-threat campaign messages. Three hypotheses were tested among strength of reactance, degree of threat to freedom, amount of negative attitudes, and behavioral intention. This study found that: (1) In both high-threat and low-threat conditions, degree of threat to freedom one perceived is positively related to strength of reactance this individual experiences; (2) People who experienced stronger reactance had more negative attitudes toward the campaign message in high-threat condition, while in low-threat condition the result was not significant; (3) No significant result supports the assumption that strength of reactance is negatively related to the behavioral intention to follow the advocacy in the campaign message.