Examining the Influence of Social Comparison on Psychological Reactance

Kang, Dingyi

Examining the Influence of Social Comparison on Psychological Reactance

dc.contributor.advisor	Banas, John
dc.contributor.author	Kang, Dingyi
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Bessarabova, Elena
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Meirick, Patrick
dc.date.accessioned	2020-05-08T21:34:02Z
dc.date.available	2020-05-08T21:34:02Z
dc.date.issued	2020-05
dc.date.manuscript	2020-05-06
dc.description.abstract	This thesis integrates social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) and psychological reactance theory (Brehm, 1966) to examine the effects of controlling language and comparison types on psychological reactance and attitudes. Two 3 (comparison types: upward contrast vs. no contrast vs. downward contrast) × 2 (controlling language: high vs. low) independent group experiments were conducted. Both studies revealed main effects of controlling language on perceived threat to personal freedom and anger in response to the message. The results also revealed the main effects of comparison types on anger to the messages and attitude to recycling. For anger to the message, there were no interaction effects between comparison types and controlling language on it in neither of these studies. However, for attitude to recycling, Study 1 revealed that the effect of controlling language on it could be overwhelmed and neutralized by the effects of both upward contrast and downward contrast on it.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/11244/324351
dc.language	en_US	en_US
dc.subject	psychological reactance theory	en_US
dc.subject	social comparison theory	en_US
dc.subject	comparison types	en_US
dc.subject	controlling language	en_US
dc.subject	persuasion	en_US
dc.thesis.degree	Master of Arts	en_US
dc.title	Examining the Influence of Social Comparison on Psychological Reactance	en_US
ou.group	College of Arts and Sciences::Department of Communication	en_US