The Importance of Purposes in "Purposive" Groups: Incentives and Participation in the Sanctuary Movement

Abstract

Interest group research has embraced incentive theory as explaining the linkage between individual decisions about participation and group maintenance. The research reported here endorses the utility of incentives while arguing for a more careful consideration of their complex nature in understanding individual participation that occurs in the group context. Based on survey evidence of participants in the Sanctuary Movement, this work examines the role of incentives in the participation decisions of individuals facing a group action. The results show that individuals at different levels of commitment to the action responded to a different mix of incentives. Economic disincentives discourage participation for some, yet incentives provide a powerful motivation to participate for many others. The findings underscore the importance of incentives in explaining participation and their significant variety in a single group. Distinctions among the objects of incentives reflect multiple understandings of group goals: some are consonant with an individual's ideological position; others are independent of that rubric. These distinctions may prove important in understanding the impact of group participation on individual political attitudes and behavior as well as on overall purposive group dynamics.