Exploring psychological mechanisms of collective action: Does relevance of group identity influence how people cope with collective disadvantage?
Martijn van Zomeren,
Russell Spears,
Colin Wayne Leach,
Corresponding Author
Martijn van Zomeren
Department of Social Psychology (FPP), VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Correspondence should be addressed to Martijn van Zomeren, Department of Social Psychology (FPP), VU University, Van der Boechorstraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands ([email protected]).Search for more papers by this authorRussell Spears
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
Department of Social Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Search for more papers by this authorColin Wayne Leach
Department of Social Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Search for more papers by this authorMartijn van Zomeren,
Russell Spears,
Colin Wayne Leach,
Corresponding Author
Martijn van Zomeren
Department of Social Psychology (FPP), VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Correspondence should be addressed to Martijn van Zomeren, Department of Social Psychology (FPP), VU University, Van der Boechorstraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands ([email protected]).Search for more papers by this authorRussell Spears
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
Department of Social Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Search for more papers by this authorColin Wayne Leach
Department of Social Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Two studies examined how the relevance of group identity influences two psychological mechanisms of collective action: Emotion- and problem-focused coping with collective disadvantage. Extending Van Zomeren, Spears, Fischer, and Leach's (2004) integrative theoretical model of coping with collective disadvantage, we predicted that when group identity is more relevant to disadvantaged group members, it increases their collective action tendencies through their feelings of group-based anger about their group's disadvantage. When group identity is less relevant and hence emotion-focused coping processes are less likely, group-efficacy beliefs become more predictive of disadvantaged group members' collective action tendencies because people focus more instrumentally on whether collective action will be effective (and benefit them) or not. A field study and a follow-up experiment both showed that the relevance of group identity facilitated emotion-focused coping and moderated problem-focused coping with collective disadvantage. We discuss these results in terms of two distinct psychological mechanisms of collective action.
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