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