How Collective-Action Failure Shapes Group Heterogeneity and Engagement in Conventional and Radical Action Over Time.

Extensive research has identified factors influencing collective-action participation. However, less is known about how collective-action outcomes (i.e., success and failure) shape engagement in social movements over time. Using data collected before and after the 2017 marriage-equality debate in Australia, we conducted a latent profile analysis that indicated that success unified supporters of change (n = 420), whereas failure created subgroups among opponents (n = 419), reflecting four divergent responses: disengagement (resigned acceptors), moderate disengagement and continued investment (moderates), and renewed commitment to the cause using similar strategies (stay-the-course opponents) or new strategies (innovators). Resigned acceptors were least inclined to act following failure, whereas innovators were generally more likely to engage in conventional action and justify using radical action relative to the other profiles. These divergent reactions were predicted by differing baseline levels of social identification, group efficacy, and anger. Collective-action outcomes dynamically shape participation in social movements; this is an important direction for future research.

Predictors of social identification in group therapy.

Background: Group therapy is a popular and effective format for psychological intervention, and both anecdotal and empirical data consistently point to group dynamics as a primary driver of its benefits. However, to date there has been no systematic investigation of what facilitates an engaged, cohesive group environment. We argue that this is social identification and explore the features of groups that help to build this. Method: We present two longitudinal studies of group therapy and examine the predictors of social identification. Study 1 was a sample of psychiatric outpatients (N = 103) who completed group cognitive behavior therapy. Study 2 was a sample of young women with body shape or weight concerns (N = 112) who completed an eating disorder prevention program. Results: Multilevel analyses indicated that social identification was best predicted by participant fit with the therapy group, specifically the degree to which (1) participants were and perceived themselves to be similar to other group members, and (2) participants met the group therapy eligibility criteria at baseline. Conclusions: These results show that attending to issues of client fit in group therapy can improve social identification, with implications for reducing client attrition and improving client outcomes.

After Aylan Kurdi: How Tweeting About Death, Threat, and Harm Predict Increased Expressions of Solidarity With Refugees Over Time.

Viral social media content has been heralded for its power to transform policy, but online responses are often derided as "slacktivism." This raises the questions of what drives viral communications and what is their effect on support for social change. We addressed these issues in relation to Twitter discussions about Aylan Kurdi, a child refugee who died en route to the European Union. We developed a longitudinal paradigm to analyze 41,253 tweets posted 1 week before the images of Aylan Kurdi emerged, the week they emerged, and 10 weeks afterward-at the time of the Paris terror attacks. Tweeting about death before the images emerged predicted tweeting about Aylan Kurdi, and this, sustained by discussion of harm and threat, predicted the expression of solidarity with refugees 10 weeks later. Results suggest that processes of normative conflict and communication can be intertwined in promoting support for social change.

The power of norms to sway fused group members.

Whitehouse adapts insights from evolutionary anthropology to interpret extreme self-sacrifice through the concept of identity fusion. The model neglects the role of normative systems in shaping behaviors, especially in relation to violent extremism. In peaceful groups, increasing fusion will actually decrease extremism. Groups collectively appraise threats and opportunities, actively debate action options, and rarely choose violence toward self or others.

Barriers to genuine consumer and carer participation from the perspectives of Australian systemic mental health advocates.

BACKGROUND: Consumer and carer participation in mental health service development and evaluation has widespread nominal support. However, genuine and consistent participation remains elusive due to systemic barriers. AIMS: This paper explores barriers to reform for mental health services from the perspectives of consumers and carers actively engaged in advocating for improvements in the mental health system. METHOD: Qualitative research with two mental health systemic advocacy organisations analysed 17 strategic communication documents and nine interviews to examine barriers to reform and participation identified by consumer and carer advocates and staff. RESULTS: A number of individual-level barriers were described, however advocates gave more focus to systemic barriers, for which five themes emerged. These reflected lack of awareness, limited participation opportunities, slow progress for change, policy issues and mental health culture including stigma. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight systemic barriers to participation for consumer and carer advocates as a whole and the influence of these barriers on the individual experiences of those engaged in advocacy and representation work. Participants also emphasised the need for leadership to overcome some of these obstacles and move towards genuine consumer and carer participation and reform. Findings are discussed in the context of power within mental health systems.

Autonomous Motives Foster Sustained Commitment to Action: Integrating Self-Determination Theory and the Social Identity Approach.

Social change movements may take years or decades to achieve their goals and thus require ongoing efforts from their supporters. We apply the insights of self-determination theory to examine sustained collective action over time. We expected that autonomous motivation, but not controlled motivation, would predict sustained action. We also examine whether autonomous motivation shapes and is shaped by social identification as a supporter of the cause. Longitudinal data were collected from supporters of global poverty reduction (N = 263) at two timepoints 1 year apart. Using latent change score modeling, we found that increases in autonomous motivation positively predicted increases in opinion-based group identification, which in turn predicted increases in self-reported collective action. Controlled motivation (Time 1) negatively predicted changes in action. We concluded that autonomous motivation predicts sustained action over time, while promoting controlled motives for action may backfire because it may undermine identification with the cause.

It's About Time! Identifying and Explaining Unique Trajectories of Solidarity-Based Collective Action to Support People in Developing Countries.

Social change occurs over years and decades, yet we know little about how people sustain, increase or diminish their actions over time, and why they do so. This article examines diverging trajectories of solidarity-based collective action to support people in developing nations more than 5 years. We suggest that sustained, diminished, and/or increased action over time will be predicted by identification as a supporter, group efficacy beliefs, and discrete emotions about disadvantage. Latent Growth Mixture Models (N = 483) revealed two trajectories with unique signatures: an activist supporter trajectory with a higher intercept and weakly declining action; and a benevolent supporter trajectory with a lower intercept but weakly increasing action. The activist trajectory was predicted by social identification, outrage, and hope, whereas the benevolent supporter trajectory was predicted by sympathy. The results highlight the role of combinations of emotions and the need for person-centered longitudinal methods in collective action research.

Racism in Australia: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Racism has been identified as a major source of injustice and a health burden in Australia and across the world. Despite the surge in Australian quantitative research on the topic, and the increasing recognition of the prevalence and impact of racism in Australian society, the collective evidence base has yet to be comprehensively reviewed or meta-analysed. This protocol describes the first systematic review and meta-analysis of racism in Australia at the national level, focussing on quantitative studies. The current study will considerably improve our understanding of racism, including its manifestations and fluctuation over time, variation across settings and between groups, and associations with health and socio-economic outcomes. METHODS: The research will consist of a systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Searches for relevant studies will focus on the social and health science databases CINAHL, PsycINFO, PubMed and Scopus. Two reviewers will independently screen eligible papers for inclusion and extract data from included studies. Studies will be included in the review and meta-analysis where they meet the following criteria: (1) report quantitative empirical research on self-reported racism in Australia, (2) report data on the prevalence of racism, or its association with health (e.g. mental health, physical health, health behaviours) or socio-economic outcomes (e.g. education, employment, income), and (3) report Australian data. Measures of racism will focus on study participants' self-reports, with a separate analysis dedicated to researcher-reported measures, such as segregation and differential outcomes across racial/ethnic groups. Measures of health and socio-economic outcomes will include both self-reports and researcher-reported measures, such as physiological measurements. Existing reviews will be manually searched for additional studies. Study characteristics will be summarised, and a meta-analysis of the prevalence of racism and its associations will be conducted using random effects models and mean weighted effect sizes. Moderation and subgroup analyses will be conducted as well. All analyses will use the software CMA 3.0. DISCUSSION: This study will provide a novel and comprehensive synthesis of the quantitative evidence base on racism in Australia. It will answer questions about the fluctuation of racism over time, its variation across settings and groups, and its relationship with health and socio-economic outcomes. Findings will be discussed in relation to broader debates in this growing field of research and will be widely disseminated to inform anti-racism research, action and policy nationally. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42021265115 .

Political disagreement in intergroup terms: contextual variation and the influence of power.

In two studies we examined justified attributions made in the face of political disagreement. Study 1 showed that Australian supporters and opponents of Australian involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq made stereotypical attributions that justified the superiority of the in-group over the out-group. Stereotypical attributions were consistent with the justification that the supporters of the war had been misled by dishonest political leaders. Study 2 replicated this pattern with supporters and opponents of Australia's policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers. It also identified pragmatism as a dimension that dominant, government-aligned, groups may use to justify the superiority of the in-group over the out-group. In both studies political leaders were seen as more competent than members of the public. The results show the influence of intergroup power and within-group leader/supporter distinctions on people's attributions about political disagreement. They point to the power of social psychological theory to help analyse important contemporary political concerns.

The role of efficacy and moral outrage norms in creating the potential for international development activism through group-based interaction.

This paper adopts an intergroup perspective on helping as collective action to explore the ways to boost motivation amongst people in developed countries to join the effort to combat poverty and preventable disease in developing countries. Following van Zomeren, Spears, Leach, and Fischer's (2004) model of collective action, we investigated the role of norms about an emotional response (moral outrage) and beliefs about efficacy in motivating commitment to take action amongst members of advantaged groups. Norms about outrage and efficacy were harnessed to an opinion-based group identity (Bliuc, McGarty, Reynolds, & Muntele, 2007) and explored in the context of a novel group-based interaction method. Results showed that the group-based interaction boosted commitment to action especially when primed with an (injunctive) outrage norm. This norm stimulated a range of related effects including increased identification with the pro-international development opinion-based group, and higher efficacy beliefs. Results provide an intriguing instance of the power of group interaction (particularly where strengthened with emotion norms) to bolster commitment to positive social change.

'We fight for a better future for our country': Understanding the Ukrainian Euromaidan movement as the emergence of a social competition strategy.

The current research seeks to develop an analysis of Ukraine's Euromaidan social movement in psychological terms. Building on the classic understanding of social competition strategies, we argue that Euromaidan protests can be conceived as an attempt of pro-European Union (EU) Ukrainians to realign the boundaries of the Ukrainian national identity by defeating the alternative pro-Russia integration project championed by the government. In particular, building on the encapsulated model of social identity in collective action, we suggest that Euromaidan is an emergent opinion-based group identity, formed in response to injustice through two self-categorical processes - group-level self-investment into the shared entity (i.e., Ukrainian national category) and disidentification from the alternative Russia-led Customs Union. Using a sample of 3,096 participants surveyed during the protests, we tested our hypotheses with structural equation modelling, where the model accounting for the direct and indirect paths of the self-categorical processes was expected to explain collective action intentions to a great extent than models applying the social identity and encapsulation models of collective action. We found evidence consistent with the proposal that Euromaidan was a pro-EU opinion-based group, formed in response to the government's decision to suspend the EU-Ukraine agreement and around individuals' general perception of unfair government authorities.

United in Diversity, Divided in Adversity? Support for Right-Wing Eurosceptic Parties in the Face of Threat Differs Across Nations.

This article investigates whether the perceived threat of terrorism explains the support for right-wing Eurosceptic parties and Euroscepticism above and beyond other relevant variables, including perceived economic and immigration threats. We first examined the entire Eurobarometer samples of 2014 and 2015, and then conducted survey experiments in four European Union (EU) countries, that is, United Kingdom (N = 197), France (N = 164), Italy (N = 312), and Romania (N = 144). Our findings suggest that the perceived threat of terrorism has a small effect on the negative attitudes toward the EU above and beyond the effect of immigration and economic threats and other basic control variables. The relationship between these variables varies across countries and it is less linear than we might expect.

Giving versus acting: Using latent profile analysis to distinguish between benevolent and activist support for global poverty reduction.

There are a variety of ways that people can respond to inequality. This article considers the distinction between collective giving and collective acting, but also adopts a focus on the people who engage in those behaviours. Benevolent supporters engage in efforts to alleviate suffering through the transfer of money or provision of goods ('giving'), while activist supporters engage in actions that aim to challenging an underlying injustice or exploitation ('acting'). Using samples obtained through anti-poverty non-governmental organizations (N = 2,340), latent profile analysis suggested two qualitatively different forms of support for global poverty reduction: a benevolent supporter profile (defined by moderate levels of charitable support) and an activist supporter profile (defined by engagement in a suite of socio-political actions). The two forms of support are predicted by different appraisals for, emotional reactions to (outrage v sympathy), and social change beliefs about, global injustice. Results highlight the theoretical and practical importance of considering subgroup differences in how social justice is pursued.

'The More We Stand For - The More We Fight For': Compatibility and Legitimacy in the Effects of Multiple Social Identities.

This paper explores the expression of multiple social identities through coordinated collective action. We propose that perceived compatibility between potentially contrasting identities and perceived legitimacy of protest serve as catalysts for collective action. The present paper maps the context of the "Euromaidan" anti-regime protests in Ukraine and reports data (N = 996) collected through an online survey following legislation to ban protests (March-May, 2014). We measured participants' identification with three different groups (the Ukrainian nation, the online protest community, and the street movement), perception of compatibility between online protest and the street movement, perception of the legitimacy of protest, and intentions to take persuasive and confrontational collective action. We found evidence that the more social groups people "stood for," the more they "fought" for their cause and that identifications predicted both forms of collective action to the degree that people saw the protest and the online movement as compatible with each other and believed protest to be legitimate. Collective action can be interpreted as the congruent expression of multiple identities that are rendered ideologically compatible both in online settings and on the street.

Where There Is a (Collective) Will, There Are (Effective) Ways: Integrating Individual- and Group-Level Factors in Explaining Humanitarian Collective Action.

The 21st century has borne witness to catastrophic natural and human-induced tragedies. These disasters necessitate humanitarian responses; however, the individual and collective bases of support are not well understood. Drawing on Duncan's motivational model of collective action, we focus on how individual differences position a person to adopt group memberships and develop a "group consciousness" that provides the basis for humanitarian action. Longitudinal mediation analyses involving supporters of international humanitarian action (N = 384) sampled annually for 3 years provided support for the hypothesized model, with some twists. The results revealed that within time point, a set of individual differences (together, the "pro-social orientation") promoted a humanitarian group consciousness that, in turn, facilitated collective action. However, longitudinally, there was evidence that a more general pro-social orientation undermined subsequent identification with, and engagement in, the humanitarian cause. Results are discussed in terms of understanding the interplay between individual and group in collective actions.

Group-based guilt as a predictor of commitment to apology.

Whether the Australian government should officially apologize to Indigenous Australians for past wrongs is hotly debated in Australia. The predictors of support amongst non-Indigenous Australians for such an apology were examined in two studies. The first study (N=164) showed that group-based guilt was a good predictor of support for a government apology, as was the perception that non-Indigenous Australians were relatively advantaged. In the second study (N=116) it was found that group-based guilt was an excellent predictor of support for apology and was itself predicted by perceived non-Indigenous responsibility for harsh treatment of Indigenous people, and an absence of doubts about the legitimacy of group-based guilt. National identification was not a predictor of group-based guilt. The results of the two studies suggest that, just as individual emotions predict individual action tendencies, so group-based guilt predicts support for actions or decisions to be taken at the collective level.

Perspective taking and opinions about forms of reparation for victims of historical harm.

The authors investigated the effects of perspective taking on opinions about reparations for victims of historical harm. In two studies, they showed that when non-Indigenous Australians took an Indigenous Australian perspective, this increased perceived entitlement to, and decreased anger toward, monetary compensation. Moreover, perceived entitlement mediated the relationship between anger about monetary compensation and perspective taking. Study 2 demonstrated the mutual influence of emotions and perceived entitlement. In particular, self-image shame rather than group-based guilt or anger predicted support for reparation when an Indigenous Australian perspective was adopted. The results suggest that taking the perspective of people who have experienced harm from one's own group can bolster a commitment to positive social change in relation to a pressing social issue.

Transforming "apathy into movement": the role of prosocial emotions in motivating action for social change.

This article explores the synergies between recent developments in the social identity of helping, and advantaged groups' prosocial emotion. The authors review the literature on the potential of guilt, sympathy, and outrage to transform advantaged groups' apathy into positive action. They place this research into a novel framework by exploring the ways these emotions shape group processes to produce action strategies that emphasize either social cohesion or social change. These prosocial emotions have a critical but underrecognized role in creating contexts of in-group inclusion or exclusion, shaping normative content and meaning, and informing group interests. Furthermore, these distinctions provide a useful way of differentiating commonly discussed emotions. The authors conclude that the most "effective" emotion will depend on the context of the inequality but that outrage seems particularly likely to productively shape group processes and social change outcomes.

Aligning identities, emotions, and beliefs to create commitment to sustainable social and political action.

In this article the authors explore the social psychological processes underpinning sustainable commitment to a social or political cause. Drawing on recent developments in the collective action, identity formation, and social norm literatures, they advance a new model to understand sustainable commitment to action. The normative alignment model suggests that one solution to promoting ongoing commitment to collective action lies in crafting a social identity with a relevant pattern of norms for emotion, efficacy, and action. Rather than viewing group emotion, collective efficacy, and action as group products, the authors conceptualize norms about these as contributing to a dynamic system of meaning, which can shape ongoing commitment to a cause. By exploring emotion, efficacy, and action as group norms, it allows scholars to reenergize the theoretical connections between collective identification and subjective meaning but also allows for a fresh perspective on complex questions of causality.