Nonconscious relationship reactance: When significant others prime opposing goals

• Published in: Journal of experimental social psychology 2007-09, Vol.43 (5), p.719-726
• Main Authors: Chartrand, Tanya L., Dalton, Amy N., Fitzsimons, Gavan J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Automaticity; Behavioural psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Consciousness; Experiments; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Goals; Human behaviour; Intragroup relations; Objectives; Otherness; Personal relationships; Psychological aspects; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Relational schemas; Relationships; Significant others; Social attribution, perception and cognition; Social psychology; Social relations; Subliminal priming
• ISSN: 0022-1031; 1096-0465
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2006.08.003

Individuals nonconsciously and unintentionally pursue goals they associate with relationship partners (Fitzsimons & Bargh, 2003; Shah, 2003). Here, we demonstrate conditions under which individuals nonconsciously and unintentionally reject goals they associate with relationship partners and instead pursue opposing goals. In Experiment 1, participants were subliminally primed with the name of a controlling significant other who had a particular goal for them. Without awareness or intent, participants pursued a goal that directly opposed their significant other’s wishes. In Experiment 2, chronic reactance was shown to moderate this effect: Low-reactant individuals adopted a subliminally primed significant other’s goal, whereas high-reactant individuals pursued an opposing goal. This research suggests that in response to controlling significant others and among chronically reactant individuals, the nonconscious activation of relational representations can automatically elicit oppositional goal pursuits, even when pursuit of an oppositional goal results in a personally suboptimal outcome.