Moral Shocks and Self‐Recruitment

Abstract

Many analysts of social movements are interested in how it is that people come to participate in social movement activity. The decision to participate is not a simple one – social movement participants may face significant risks and personal costs, such as arrest or violence, if they become involved. In addition, individuals often perceive social movements as being able to obtain desired goals without their own personal action, a dilemma that has come to be known as the “free‐rider” problem. Some popular explanations for individuals’ decisions to join social movements have included biographical availability (McAdam 1986) and mobilization through preexisting social networks. However, there are individuals who participate in social movements without being connected to any existing networks or being in any significant way biographically available. The moral shocks perspective shows how these individuals, often ignored in research about participation in social movements, can recruit themselves into social movement activity due to their experience of a moral shock.