Abstract
40 college students majoring in art and 40 college students not majoring in art, role-playing, were pressured while selecting one of four similar watercolor paintings. Reactance theory would make two predictions: one, the paintings where pressure was exerted not to select would be chosen more frequently by the art majors than by the non-art majors; and two, the paintings which the subjects were pressured not to select would be chosen more frequently. The results supported the first prediction and the second prediction was supported for art majors but not for non-art majors. Thus, only in an area of concern to the individual does the reduction of his freedom to select alternatives produce behavior to restore that freedom.
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