Threatening uncertainty and psychological reactance: are freedom threats always noxious?

Psychological reactance theory posits that when people are faced with threats to, or elimination of, behavioral freedom, they experience an aversive motivational state (i.e., psychological reactance). Recent research indicates people’s of mind affects arousal processes. We hypothesized being in a threatening uncertainty would cause to less freedom-threatening communication than those certainty. randomly assigned 114 students from North American University uncertainty- certainty-inducing recall task; were then exposed reactance-arousing message. Compared participants primed feel certain, reported significantly threat and more positive attitudes response freedom communication. Mediation analysis revealed indirect effect feelings on intentions, through perceptions the controlling Results support our hypothesis: