Psychological reactance gained scholarly attention and is continued to be explored across various disciplines ever since Brehm proposed reactance theory in 1966. Proliferation of intrusive marketing and promotion efforts across communication channels induce negative reactions from significant number of consumers. Little effort has been made in reviewing and consolidating the results of previous literature in the context of consumer reactance. To address this research gap the current study systematically reviewed the existing literature and has attempted to classify consumer reactance variables by using the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) framework. A conceptual framework was then built to explain the interrelationships between these three key S–O–R elements of consumer reactance. Lastly the implications for practitioners’ and researchers’ have been discussed. Propositions for future research are put forward. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.