Neural Bases of Psychological Reactance: An fMRI Study on Dogmatic and Suggestive Health-Related Advertising

This study aims to shed light on the neurobiological mechanisms of psychological reactance—a motivational state aroused when an individual perceives a threat to his or her freedom of choice—by exposing unhealthy food eaters to two types of health-related messages that differ in their level of threat to individual autonomy: dogmatic (“You must…”) versus suggestive (“It would be a good idea to…”). By employing both functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and self-reports, the findings of this study bolster the psychological reactance theory, such that dogmatic messages provoke stronger levels of self-reported anger and counterargument (i.e., psychological reactance), which led to increased activation in brain areas associated with such psychological mechanisms (inferior frontal lobe, fusiform gyrus, anterior insula and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex). Suggestive messages, in contrast, engage brain areas linked to reward and self-reference (ventromedial prefrontal cortex), suggesting greater persuasive effects. These findings thus demonstrate that designing campaigns that avoid message resistance and unintended backlash improve advertising effectiveness. The results likewise suggest that advertisers should specifically incorporate self-relevant features in dogmatic messages to reduce consumer resistance to persuasive campaigns that challenge attitudes, consumption norms and entrenched irresponsible behaviors.