Acting on Ideology: Identification and Protest in OpinionBased Groups

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Acting on Ideology Identification and Protest in
Opinion-Based Groups

• Jim Cameron
• Saint Marys University
• Halifax, Canada

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Politicized Collective Identity

• A qualitatively different kind of identification,
  underlying group members explicit motivations
  to engage ina power struggle (Simon
  Klandermans, 2001, p. 323)
• The societal context of social movements

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Two General Questions

• How does opinion articulate with identity in
  the context of social movement participation?
• To what extent are normative and non-normative
  collective action tendencies distinct in form and
  origin?

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The Value of Opinion

• In mass movements (peoples movements), it is
  clear that most of the participants could not be
  described as activists (Bluic et al., 2007, p.
  21)
• opinion-based groupsform an intermediate stage
  between broad social categories andactivist
  groups (p. 21)

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The Value of Opinion

• Opinion-based groups (Bluic, McGarty, Reynolds,
  Muntele, 2007 McGarty, 2006) are a way to
  represent the politicized content of collective
  identity (We stand for this)
• Opinion can voice grievance
• Opinion can transcend particular social category
  memberships
• Opinion(s) can provide the ideological basis of
  broad social movements (e.g., peoples movements)
  
• Opinion can influence third parties, even in a
  global context
• Opinion is a bridge to politicization, a way to
  find and form solidarity

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The Anti-Globalization Movement

• Anti-globalization referred to variously in
  terms of anti-capitalism, anti-corporate
  movement, or global justice movement
• Heterogeneous in terms of opinions and social
  category memberships anarchists,
  anti-capitalists, anti-genetic engineering,
  anti-logging, anti-nuclear, anti-sweatshop,
  anti-warenvironmental, feministindigenous
  rightslabor sectors (Brooks, 2004, p. 562)
• Heterogeneous in terms of prescriptions for
  action concern that the broad appeal of the
  movement will get lost amid all the smashed
  windows and tear gas (Beckett, 2002, p. 22)

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The Anti-Globalization Movement

• The anti-globalization movement is based on the
  perception that aspects of intergroup
  arrangementsor patterns of domination (Piven,
  2008, p. 3)are illegitimate
• Ideological basis characterized by an insistence
  of levelling hierarchies (Barlow Clarke,
  2001, p. 29)
• (Anti-)social dominance orientation (Sidanius
  Pratto, 1999) captures this broad opinion in part

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A General Model
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Dimensions of Protest
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Predicting Types of Protest Inclinations

• Dimensions of protest individual versus
  collective, active versus passive, normative
  versus non-normative (e.g., Wright, 2001)
• Some suggestion that non-normative action arises
  in response to high degrees of perceived
  illegitimacy, injustice, or discrimination

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Predicting Types of Protest Inclinations

• The role of age and sex
• Younger people appeared to act more strongly on
  injustice than did older people (Van Zomeren,
  Postmes, Spears, 2008)
• A general tendency for younger peopleparticularly
  young mento engage in risky, aggressive
  behaviour

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The Summit of the Americas, Québec City, April
2001
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Cameron, J.E., Nickerson, S.L. (2009).
Predictors of protest among anti-globalization
demonstrators. Journal of Applied Social
Psychology, 39, 734-761.
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Participants and Procedure

• Respondents were 145 demonstrators (including 81
  males, 60 females), ranging in age from 16 to 70
  years (mode 21)
• A brief questionnaire contained measures of
  social dominance orientation (Pratto et al.,
  1994), social identification (e.g., I feel
  strong ties to other members of the
  anti-globalization movement Cameron, 2004), and
  inclination toward protest (18 behaviours adapted
  from Lalonde Cameron, 1994)

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Dimensions of Collective Action

• Anti-globalization protest (e.g., become an
  activist, boycott products)
• Indirect protest (e.g., write letters of
  protest, donate money to worthy causes)
• Non-normative protest (e.g., engage in acts of
  violence, break the law)
• Passive protest (e.g., sign a petition)

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Predictors of Anti-globalization Protest

• Women were more likely than men to say theyd
  engage in these protest behaviours
• SDO and social identification strong predictors
• Social identification a significant mediator of
  SDO
• R2 .37

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Predictors of Anti-globalization Protest
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Predictors of Indirect Protest

• Older people were more inclined toward indirect
  protest than younger ones
• SDO and social identification were significant
  predictors, and the correlations were consistent
  with a complete mediation of SDO by social
  identification
• R2 .17

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Predictors of Indirect Protest
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Predictors of Non-normative Protest

• Males more inclined toward non-normative protest
  than women
• Younger demonstrators also tended to score higher
  than younger ones
• Neither SDO nor social identification were
  significant predictors
• R2 .11

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Predictors of Non-normative Protest
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Why is Non-Normative Protest Different?

• Viewed by only some movement members as an
  appropriate strategy
• Dynamics of unfolding events within the protest,
  sharpening of intergroup conflict between
  protesters and police a decoupling of intention
  and consequence (Drury Reicher, 2000, p. 595)
• Reflects sex and age to a greater extent

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Differential Effects of Different Facets of
Identification?

• Centrality or importance of the group to the self
• Group-related affect, esteem, or satisfaction
• In-group ties, commitment, or solidarity

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Differential Effects of Different Facets of
Identification?

• In the present data,
• In-group affect ? anti-globalization protest
• Centrality ? indirect protest
• More recently, Giguére and Lalonde (in press,
  Political Psychology) found that,
• Only in-group affect had a direct influence on
  collective action in a student strike

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A Joint Effect of Ideology and Identity
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Concluding Thoughts

• The reciprocal relationship between
  opinion/ideology and social movement
  identification
• Importance of attending to opinion in the
  context of global civil society networks, and
  universalistic groups (Gamson, 1990)