Sour grapes reaction

Reaction formation is the mechanism of the sour grapes reaction. You can t get something, so you start seeing its negative aspects I didn t really want that crummy thing anyway This is a mild form of reaction formation, in that the initial desire was clearly in consciousness before the reaction formed. 

The exact course of events depends on the relative strength of the different mechanisms at work. Just as people "may vary in the degree to which their reactions are dominated by endowment or by contrast,"8 they may also differ in their susceptibility to adaptive preference formation. A person dominated by the contrast effect and highly vulnerable to the sour-grapes mechanism will initially be very miserable and then quickly overcome the grief. A person dominated by the endowment effect will not suffer so much in the first place. Others may be miserable for a long time, and still others may experience cycles of misery and relief. If we add counteradaptive preference formation to the range of mechanisms, even more possibilities come into play. Such interplay of mechanisms is the stuff of novels and of everyday life. Perhaps it is time for the social sciences to consider them. 

The acidity of food is related to the amount of undissociated and dissociated forms of carboxyKc acids and oxonium ions, respectively, that are present. The major substances that give a sour taste in foods are undissociated hydroxycarboxylic acids, citric and malic acids. Often, however, other carboxylic acids occur, such as ascorbic acid in most types of fruits, tartaric acid in grapes, isocitric acid in blackberries, oxalic acid in rhubarb, lactic acid in some dairy products (such as yoghurt), fermented cucumbers, cabbage, oKves, vinegar and propionic acid in Emmental type cheeses (see Section 8.2.6). The acidity of cola drinks is provided by phosphoric acid, sometimes accompanied by citric or other acids. Carboxylic acids also act as bacteriostatic agents and affect a number of biochemical and chemical reactions. 

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