Freedom as Right or Privilege? Comparing the Effect of Power Distance on Psychological Reactance Between China and the United States

ABSTRACT

Previous research on cultural differences in psychological reactance focuses almost exclusively on individualism. The present study investigated how power distance might affect psychological reactance by comparing Chinese’s (N = 400) and Americans’ reactions (N = 441) to a quitting smoking message which included versus did not include controlling language. Results show that individuals reacted to the controlling language with more negative cognitive thoughts, more anger, and a higher level of state reactance, compared to the noncontrolling language. In addition, compared to Chinese, Americans reported more anger. Moreover, the country difference in state reactance was mediated through trait reactance and through power distance and subsequently trait reactance. Furthermore, controlling language caused more state reactance among Americans reporting a low level of power distance but among Chinese reporting a high level of power distance. Our findings extended prior research on cultural effects on psychological reactance to power distance and provided insights on the complex nature of this cultural factor.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data of the present study is available via https://figshare.com/s/960b3328a6195dde9b73

Notes

1. Results of MANOVA can change as different covariates were added to the model. When no variables were controlled, significant differences emerged in both negative cognitive thoughts and anger between countries, with Chinese consistently demonstrating lower levels of negative cognitive thoughts and anger than Americans. When sex, age, and the quantity of smoking were controlled, the only significant difference between countries was anger. If individualism and power distance were considered as additional covariates, Chinese exhibited a higher level of state reactance than Americans, which aligns with the direct effect in the path model. However, the last finding can be spurious, given that the correlations between individualism, power distance, and country caused multicollinearity.

2. We tested the mediation between power distance and state reactance via trait reactance controlling for individualism and freedom threat in separate samples. However, the relationship between power distance and trait reactance was positive in both samples.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Social Science Fund in China under Grant 21BXW060