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RE: Why Do People Act In Opposition To Their Internal Desires? The Theory of Reaction Formation

in #psychology8 years ago

Good explanation of an iffy theory. The trouble with "reaction formation" lies in the absence-of-evidence problem, plus it appeals to two psychological biases that might well be present in the would-be assessor: 1) an inference gap, in which the evident motive isn't understandable; 2) sophisticated cynicism, which relishes irony.

These two biases will lead to a lot of false positives through using that theory.

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Absolutely. It feels right but we cannot be sure that it is right.