Abstract

Mobilizing public support is key to a movement's success. Little is known, however, about how movements can achieve this goal and whether involving advantaged group members is beneficial for a movement's cause. In a set of five experiments with convenience samples collected in the United States and Germany (total N = 1,625), we examined whether protests (e.g., against racism and sexism) with and without advantaged group members affect politicized identification among observers. We expected that the presence (vs. absence) of advantaged group members at a protest will increase politicized identification among advantaged group observers, which was confirmed in Studies 1A–1C. In contrast, we expected that the disadvantaged group observers will increase or decrease their politicized identification depending on the role advantaged group members have at a protest (i.e., supportive vs. leadership role). Studies 2A–2B revealed that when advantaged group members had a supportive role, disadvantaged and advantaged group observers increased their politicized identification, but this effect was absent when they had a leadership role. Moreover, including advantaged group members in a protest increased the belief that solidarity is a normative behavior and the expectations that a protest will be peaceful among observers. Implications for research on allyship are discussed.

Highlights

  • We expected that the reactions of disadvantaged group observers will depend on how the advantaged group’s presence at the protest is perceived (Droogendyk et al, 2016)

  • We ran a univariate analysis of variance with Protest Manipulation (Control vs. 25% Advantaged group members vs. 50% Advantaged group members) and Audience (Disadvantaged group vs. Advantaged group) on politicized identification

  • The pattern of means suggested that advantaged group observers identified somewhat more strongly as supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement the more advantaged group members were expected to be present at the protest, whereas disadvantaged group observers identified somewhat less strongly

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Summary

Summary and Overview

We examine the effect of including advantaged group members (vs. not including them) on observers’ politicized identification in five experimental studies across two different contexts. Study 1A and Study 1B examined whether the presence of advantaged group members has an impact on observers’ politicized identification in two different contexts: collective action against the discrimination of Black Americans in the United States and collective action against the discrimination of women in Germany. These two studies were exploratory, and we included a broad range of questions about public perceptions of collective action, allyship, stereotypes of activists, etc., which are not of focal interest in this article. Databases, and the syntax can be found at https://osf.io/p3dc5/

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