Resistance to change splits into 12 reasons on a 36-question Radboud scale
Radboud University researchers built a 36-question scale that sorts resistance to change into 12 reasons, from questionnaires by 2,341 people in the US and UK. Managers can use the profile to see which reasons dominate for one specific change before they pick a response.
The Scientist · Science desk
The scale covers 12 reasons people resist change, including ethical objections, entitlement, effort and fear of the unknown. It has 36 questions on a particular change and was developed from questionnaires by 2,341 participants in the United States and United Kingdom.
| Figure | Value | Note | Claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reasons, incl. ethical objections and entitlement | 12 reasons | 4 | |
| Questions per change | 36 questions | 2 | |
| US and UK participants | 2,341 participants | 3 |
What happened
- The 12 reasons include doubts about effectiveness, ethical objections, lack of autonomy, fear of social judgment, preference for the status quo and the effort a change demands.
- Lack of autonomy came up frequently across changes, according to Fransen, while the other reasons varied widely from one change to the next.
- In the study population, fear of the unknown scored high for a new vaccine, while resistance to eating less meat came mainly from preferring the status quo and seeing little personal relevance.
- Fransen pairs reasons with responses: convincing evidence for doubts about effectiveness, and support or training for people who doubt their own skills.
Why it matters
- Who has to decide decision Some scores point away from communications. For lack of inclusion, Fransen's remedy is to give people a say, which changes the rollout itself and may belong to whoever owns it.
- What it limits constraint A high score records a reason people state. That reason has not been shown to be the cause, so a manager who acts on it is testing a hypothesis about behavior.
- What's now possible capability Because the same 36 items apply to any named change, a team can profile its own rollout and set the result beside another change on the same 12 reasons.
Marieke Fransen, the Radboud communication scientist who led the work, starts from how organisations treat opponents. "People who resist change are often dismissed as difficult, but that resistance often stems from entirely legitimate concerns," she said [5]. She expects resistance to persist. "There will always be resistance," Fransen said. "That's not a bad thing. Resistance can actually help us achieve something better." [11]
The scale is the sorting tool. It has 36 questions for 12 reasons, an average of three questions per reason [12]. The paper appeared in Basic and Applied Social Psychology, and its title describes the "development" of the scale [10]. We would read it as a scale still at the development stage. The Phys.org account does not include reliability figures or a check of the 12-reason structure in a second sample.
The design logic is sound. A single scale applied to different changes can produce different profiles, which is what the vaccine and meat examples show. The use case follows from that. "If you know which reasons are the main causes of resistance, you can take appropriate action," Fransen said [8].
The pairings of reason and response are Fransen's recommendations, and the account reports no trial of whether acting on a top score works [9]. In our view the scale is a reasonable first pass at asking what people object to in one specific change. Treat its output as a hypothesis and check it against what people do afterward.
The sample came from the United States and the United Kingdom [3], so the 12-reason list is a finding about two countries until someone shows it holds elsewhere.
What to watch
- A replication of the 12-reason structure in a sample outside the US and UK, or in a second sample from the same countries.
- Reliability and predictive-validity figures from the paper itself, showing whether scores forecast what people later do.
- A field trial that matches responses to top-scoring reasons and measures whether resistance falls.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence55
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
Radboud University communication scientist Marieke Fransen and her colleagues identified 12 reasons why people resist change.
- [2]
The Reasons for Resistance to Change Scale (RRCS) consists of 36 questions that can be used to measure why people feel resistance to a particular change.
- [3]
To develop the measurement tool, researchers used data from questionnaires completed by 2,341 participants from the United States and the United Kingdom.
- [4]
The 12 reasons include doubts about effectiveness, lack of personal relevance, ethical objections, lack of autonomy, fear of social judgment, doubts about those driving the change, preference for the status quo, uncertainty about their own abilities, effort, lack of inclusion, entitlement and fear of the unknown.
- [5]
Fransen said: "People who resist change are often dismissed as difficult, but that resistance often stems from entirely legitimate concerns,"
- [6]
Fransen said that with many changes people feel they have too little autonomy, so that reason comes up frequently, but beyond that the reasons why people oppose a particular change vary widely.
- [7]
For a new vaccine, fear of the unknown scored highly within the study population, while people who resist the idea of eating less meat primarily prefer the status quo and do not feel the change is personally relevant to them.
- [8]
Fransen said: "If you know which reasons are the main causes of resistance, you can take appropriate action,"
- [9]
Fransen says that if people doubt effectiveness, clear communication with convincing evidence can help; if they fear lacking the skills, support or training can be offered; and if they feel excluded from decision-making, giving them a say may be a good idea, because sometimes the solution lies in adjusting the change itself.
- [10]
The study is published in Basic and Applied Social Psychology (2026) under the title '12 Reasons Why People Resist Change: Development of the Reasons for Resistance to Change Scale (RRCS)'.
- [11]
Fransen said: "There will always be resistance," and "That's not a bad thing. Resistance can actually help us achieve something better."
- [12]
The RRCS averages three questions per reason, assuming the 36 items are spread across the 12 reasons.
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Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- phys.orgResistance to change has 12 different drivers, new measurement tool reveals
1 article · October 16, 2026
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