Extreme Activism? Psychological Determinants of Protest Behavior
Introduction
Research shows that the ways citizens become part of the political decision-making process in contemporary democracies have changed during the last decades. So called protest activity, including demonstrations, boycotts and signing petitions, has replaced more institutionalized forms of participation, such as party activity. The general aim of this project is to explain why individuals protest. More specifically we aim to answer the questions, "are individuals with more extreme attitudes more likely to take part in protest activity, and if so, why?" To answer these questions, we draw on the political science literature on participation and on the literature in the fields of social, personality, and cognitive psychology. We thereby combine and aim to make contributions to different disciplinary fields. We also formulate new hypotheses about protest activity, drawing on both literatures. To evaluate our hypotheses we perform a series of studies, including surveys, lab experiments, and a field study. A main problem with previous research on participation is that it has been difficult to fully evaluate the role of various incentives to political activity basing the empirical analysis solely on survey data; the main approach previously used. By applying methods of psychological research, using various experimental techniques, we argue that this problem can be solved, and we will hence be able to increase our understanding of protest activity and political participation in general. The project is funded by Vetenskapsrådet and the project period is 2011-2014.
Department Researchers in this Project
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Koordinator/Projektledare
Hanna
Bäck
(Associate Professor) |
External Project Members
Professor Henry Montgomery (Stockholm University) Dr. Emma Bäck (Stockholm University) Dr. Neda Kerimi (Stockholm University)
