The teenage girl who wins the boy by playing hard to get. The parents whose disapproval of their daughter's boyfriend only drives her into his arms. The child who will wear anything except what her mother suggests. These are all examples of reactance: the inclination to do precisely the opposite of what someone wants you to.
You might think this is just contrariness by another name, but reactance is actually a recognized psychological state, first described in 1966 by Jack Brehm, now professor emeritus of social psychology at the University of Kansas. The theory is that when someone perceives a threat to their freedom of action, they become motivated to re-establish that freedom.
I always wondered if they had a name for that.
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