week 11 Flashcards
Social change
Transformation of the institutions and culture of a society.
Rupture in the equilibrium of social structures (de la Sablonnière et al, 2013).
Two main psychological models of social change: prejudice reduction and collective action.
From prejudice reduction to collective action
Prejudice reduction
A prejudice reduction approach assumes that negative attitudes are at the heart of intergroup inequality.
It aims at improving the attitudes of the advantaged.
Social justice is inextricably tied to strengthening intergroup harmony.
Positive effects on members of the advantaged group.
Collective action
Many procedures used to reduce prejudice may also serve to undermine collective action by the disadvantaged group (Wright & Baray, 2012).
Collective action is about strengthening social movements by the disadvantaged.
Two psychological social change models
Prejudice reduction
Low salience of category membership
Weak collective identification
Low salience of group-based inequality
Perceive group boundaries to be permeable
Generally positive characterizations of the outgroup
Collective action
High salience of category membership
Strong collective identification
High salience of group-based inequality
Perceive group boundaries to be impermeable
Generally negative characterizations of the outgroup
Social Identity Theory (SIT)
Explains intergroup relations as a function of group-based self-definitions.
Individuals define their own identities regarding social groups, and such identifications work to protect and bolster self-identity.
Social identity as those aspects of a person’s self-concept or image that derive from the social categories to which they belong (Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Spears & Tausch, 2015).
Social identity as places in society
We occupy many different “places” (e.g., student, friend, partner).
Some of those places are exclusive, occupied only by a small number of people (e.g., football team).
Some places are mutually exclusive (e.g., employed vs unemployed).
Others are inclusive, encompassing large numbers of people (e.g., British).
Some are nested (e.g., Italian, European) and/or cross-cutting (e.g., men and teacher).
- Interpersonal-intergroup continuum
Personal Identity
Characteristics that define us as individuals as distinct from other individuals (e.g., personality).
Social Identity
That part of our self-concept corresponding to group memberships, and the value and emotional significance attached to those memberships (Spears & Tausch, 2015).
Personal and social identity as two extremes by which behaviour can be defined.
In group situations, we shift from personal to social identity.
- Positive self-esteem and intergroup differentiation
Central principle of SIT: People seek to maintain positive social identities.
To maintain or enhance their self-esteem, members of social groups will base their comparisons on relevant outgroups with which they can make a favourable comparison on behalf of the ingroup.
- Strategies to avoid (negative) social identities
There is a possibility that groups to which one belongs may not satisfy the motivational principle of maintaining a positive self-esteem and intergroup differentiation.
Members of the group avoid negatively evaluated social identity by:
Individual mobility (e.g., leaving the group).
Social creativity (e.g., changing the comparison).
Social conflict (e.g., engaging in collective action).
Importantly, the type of strategy used is dependent on external factors.
Permeability, legitimacy and cognitive alternatives
Perceptions of permeability of group boundaries
Groups’ status legitimacy
Cognitive alternatives: Groups’ status stability
Individual mobility
Individual behaviour aimed at achieving a more positive situation for oneself – not for the group.
Boundaries are perceived to be permeable and there is the possibility for an upward change in the social status of the individual.
Social creativity
Group boundaries are perceived as impermeable, group relationships as legitimate and/or no cognitive alternatives can be envisaged.
Selecting a new comparison dimension.
Engaging in downward comparison.
Re-evaluating a negative group attribute by changing in a positive way.
Social conflict
Group boundaries are impermeable (individual mobility is impossible).
Group relationships are perceived as illegitimate and cognitive alternatives can be envisaged.
Social conflict as the struggle for agency and power in society.
Collective action is often the route used to contest and change the relationships between groups.
How do these strategies affect intergroup relations?
Individual mobility
It does not affect intergroup relations.
It is mainly about individual change.
Social creativity
It helps coping with social disadvantage, BUT group-based inequality is not actively challenged.
Social conflict
Directly attempts to change the group’s position in the social hierarchy.
Collective action: The only strategy that may result in a change in the objective reality of group relations.
Collective action/protest
Protest can take diverse forms: demonstrations, blockades, or strikes.
It can also be engaged in by single individuals (e.g., by signing a petition or voting on an issue) or take on more radical forms, such as property damage or physical violence (Becker & Tausch, 2015).
Nonviolent collective action = strikes, demonstrations, sit-ins, petitions, boycotts.
Violent collective action = unorganized (e.g., riots) or organized (e.g., militia / acts of terrorism).
Collective action as a socio-psychological phenomenon
What moves and motivates people to engage in such action is both academically and societally relevant, as an expression of human agency may change the social structure in which individuals are embedded (van Zomeren et al., 2018).
Why do people engage in collective action?
Injustice: Subjective sense of disadvantage, unjust treatment, or the violation of important moral standards.
Efficacy: Pragmatic and instrumental elements
Identity: Importance of identification with the aggrieved group.
Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA) (van Zomeren et al., 2008).
A meta-analysis tested the predictive role of these three dimensions.
It places social identity at the very heart of explaining collective action.
Injustice
People participate in protests to express their grievances stemming from relative deprivation, frustration, or perceived injustice (van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013).
A sense of violation of important moral standards (Becker & Tausch, 2015).
Emotional dimension: Individual’s perceptions of unfairness or experience of anger (i.e., group-based anger).
How well does injustice predict protest?
2008 economic and political crisis led to new movements (e.g., Indignados) and revitalized older ones (e.g., the Catalonian Movement for independence).
Sabucedo et al. (2017) analysed the manifestos of the groups involved in the anti-austerity movement in Spain and surveyed 919 participants during the mobilisations.
The role of perceived injustice
Perceived injustice distinguished participants and non-participants.
Participants in the demonstrations feel more unfairly treated than non-participants.
Efficacy
Pragmatic and instrumental aspects of collective action.
Multiple forms of efficacy: Agency, collective, individual, and participative.
Group efficacy – when people believe their group can achieve its goals through joint action, they experience the collective agency that is lacking when people merely feel hopeful (Van Zomeren et al., 2008).
How does group efficacy influence collective action?
An experimental study manipulated students’ group efficacy beliefs (van Zomeren et al., 2010).
Group efficacy beliefs increased their collective action intentions against raising tuition fees in the Netherlands.
How? Group efficacy beliefs increased identification with the disadvantaged group by increasing their collective action tendencies (Van Zomeren et al., 2010).
Identity/group identification
Individuals’ psychological ties with the relevant group.
Identification with the aggrieved group in mobilising action and sustaining solidarity and group commitment (van Zomeren et al., 2008).
Group/social identity (e.g., women) vs politicised identity (e.g., politicised movement).
The role of identity processes
Longitudinal study (n=199) in the context of the German gay movement (Stürmer & Simon, 2004).
Members of the largest formal organization.
Results shown a clear support for the role of collective identity processes above and beyond efficacy dimensions (Stürmer & Simon, 2004).
Stronger effect of identification with the specific social movement organization (i.e., politicised identity).
So, what explains collective action?
Injustice, efficacy, and identity as the main predictors of collective action.
These approaches should not be viewed as competing explanations of collective action.
The strength and the role of the three main variables may change according to the type of collective action.
It depends on the collective action context and the cultural context (Sefa Uysal et al., 2022).
Applying the SIMCA:Iran’s Nature Cleaners
‘Nature Cleaners’ movement in Iran.
16 events, n = 382, during an eight-month period.
Goal was to test the applicability of the SIMCA.
Key role of social identification as the only significant, direct predictor collective action. (See Keshavarzi et al., 2021)
Climate collective action in Austria and Germany
Bamberg et al. (2015) looked at 652 university students in Austria and Germany.
Aimed to explain intention to participate in community-based environmental/collective initiatives.
Social identity was the core predictor of collective climate action across studies.
Participative efficacy, individual (rather than collective) efficacy was also a predictor.
(see Bamberg et al., 2015).
Extinction Rebellion (XR, UK)
Tested how the SIMCA explained participation in the XR (see Furlong & Vignoles, 2021).
Survey of 203 current or potential XR activists.
Two pathways:
feelings of moral outrage (perceived injustice, moral convictions, anger).
the belief that one’s individual actions could make a difference (participative efficacy).
(see Furlong & Vignoles, 2021)
Two pathways to collective action
Both pathways predicted collective action behaviour and future intentions through identification with XR.
Identification with global humanity seemingly played a more distal role, predicting perceived injustice, moral convictions and participative efficacy (Furlong & Vignoles, 2021).
Moral beliefs: an additional pathway to action?
Perceived rights violation predicts movement identification in water movement in Italy (Mazzonni et al., 2015).
Moral motivation predicted participation in climate change demonstrations/protests in Portugal (Fernandes-Jesus, Sabucedo, & Lima, 2020).
Moral beliefs predict different types of collective action including climate collective action in Turkey (Sefa Uysal et al., 2022). Calls for the need to look at how collective action happens in repressive regimes.
SIMCA: A further extension
Moral convictions = strong and absolute stances on moral issues.
It is also about the moral beliefs that individuals perceive to have been violated (van Zomeren et al., 2018), i.e., a violation of one’s moral beliefs (e.g., one’s moral convictions, values, or rights).
Some limitations in the study of collective action
Tendency to focus on moderate/normative forms of action (e.g., peaceful demonstrations) and psychological predictors of collective action in Western contexts.
Overall lack of attention to how collective action can lead to psychological change.
Also, what is the effect of collective action on public opinion?
Lack of attention to dynamic processes in collective action (e.g., effects of collective action are rarely considered) – But let’s look at a few exceptions.
New emergent identities
Riot is not characterised by unconstrained, chaotic behaviour (Reicher, 1984).
2011 ‘riots’ can be seen as the product of social identity processes (Stott et al., 2017, 2018).
Longstanding intergroup tension between the community and the police.
Previously conflictual groups united in opposition to the police.
Looting behaviour was a product of emergent social identities (i.e., not individual pathology/criminality).
Not identity loss, but identity change: Individual identity Social identity.
The Elaborated Social Identity Model (ESIM
Explains the dynamics of conflicts within crowd/collective events (Drury & Reicher, 2000; 2009).
Riots, protests, and demonstrations,
Mass emergencies; and also solidarity during disaster situations.
Identity change occurring within crowd events could also endure afterwards.
Recognition of the role of empowerment as a cause and consequence of collective action (Drury & Reicher, 2000).
Environmental campaign in Sweden
Ojnare campaign to save a piece of forest and the lake Bästeträsk (Sweden’s largest island, Gotland).
Qualitative study with participants, locals and self-defined activists.
Collective political efforts can result in personality, behavioural, lifestyle, and worldview changes (Vestergren, Drury, & Chiriac, 2019).
