Freedom and Control

Nick and I are huge movie buffs. We used to go see movies all the time; I’m talking like multiple movies a week. And if we weren’t heading to the theaters, we were hitting up blockbuster. Now that he lives in Houston and I’m still here in Georgetown, I rarely go to the movies. Which is sad because I really do love going. Nick, being in law school, shouldn’t really have the time to go to the movies either but somehow he still manages occasionally (even more than I do, which makes me question how hard he really is working, hehe). Anyways, Nick is the type of person that goes to see a movie and if you ask him how it was, more often than not this is the reaction you’ll get: “Oh my gosh. It was one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.” Now initially, I hated when he would do that when I had not seen the movie he was referencing because he was taking away my freedom to think what I wanted to think. This is called psychological reactance. Psychological reactance is the theory that when our freedom to think and do what we want is threatened, we will take active steps to restore our freedom (Brehm & Brehm, 1981). So when he tells me how wonderful it is and how much I’m going to love it and MUST see it, then I’m slightly more inclined to not like it before I even see it.

Now if you noticed, I said “initially” and said that that is his reaction more often than not, so now I just tune him out because every movie cannot be his favorite movie. He just likes to be dramatic. But it does still irk me a little when he says things like that, even when I know he is exaggerating. Also, it has now become a joke at my house. Over the summer when Nick and I would go back to my house after seeing a movie, my parents would always ask how it was and then before we could say anything, they’d say, “Nick, is it one of your new favorite movies, greatest movie of all time?” And then laugh. They jest, all in good fun!

Another story I thought of as we were talking about this in class was from when I was younger. I lived in England for my elementary school years and we travelled and went sightseeing all the time. At a lot of the castles there were these beautiful gardens, but the little signs always said, “Keep Off the Grass.” As a kid who has just ridden in the car for a couple hours and is tempted with large open areas of soft, green grass, all you want to do is run around and roll around in the grass. In addition, add a small sign instructing you not to touch the grass and you can imagine what happens… My little brother and I would take off on to the grass. Of course it was never long before my dad was running after us to get us off, some of the older British people would be giving our family dirty looks, and then up walks some official-looking person to tell us that we are not allowed on the grass and blah blah so on and so on. The people who decide to make touching the grass a bad idea have to think that if you put a sign up, people are going to want to touch the grass even more. Do they not know of psychological reactance? Silly idea, it is just grass.

Brehm, S. S., & Brehm, J. W. (1981). Psychological reactance: A theory of freedom and control. New York: Academic Press.