The scale assesses how manipulative and threatening a specific message (such as an ad, speech, or social media post) is perceived to be, applying reactance theory to message-level persuasion research.
7-point Likert (anchors not explicitly stated; likely strongly disagree/strongly agree)
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
Shoenberger, Kim, and Sun (2021) borrowed three of four items from an established threat-to-freedom measure by Dillard and Shen (2005); the fourth item appears to be their own addition. Used in a pretest with MTurk participants. Reliability was excellent (α = .92). Validity wasn't discussed, though successful use as a manipulation check offers some indirect support. A related scale on this site, Threat to Freedom, measures a more general (non-message-specific) version of this construct.
Shoenberger, Heather, Eunjin (Anna) Kim, and Yuan Sun (2021), "Advertising during COVID-19: Exploring Perceived Brand Message Authenticity and Potential Psychological Reactance," Journal of Advertising, 50 (3), 253–261.
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