Identity Expression Through Collective Action:How Identification With a Politicized Group and Its Identity Contents Differently Motivated Identity-Expressive Collective Action in the US 2016 Presidential Elections

Although political action often requires activists to express who they are and what they stand for, little is known about the motivators of such identity expression. This research investigates how group identity content and identification with this content predict identity-expressive collective action in the U.S. 2016 presidential elections. We recruited a longitudinal community sample of U.S. party supporters (N = 426) mid-October (T1), beginning November (T2), and mid-November (T3). Participants listed words they associated with party campaigners, and self-reported their identification with this identity content and the politicized group. Supporting H1, politicized group identification longitudinally predicted increased frequency of collective action more strongly than did identification with specific identity content. Supporting H2, identification with specific identity content longitudinally predicted increased desires to express that content through collective action more strongly than politicized group identification. Implications for our understanding of identity expression and identity content in collective action are discussed

Affective Polarization and Political Belief Systems: The Role of Political Identity and the Content and Structure of Political Beliefs

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work is financially supported by the NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Democratic Governance in a Turbulent Age and co-funded by NWO, ESRC, AEI, NSC, FWO, and the European Commission through Horizon 2020 under grant agreement number 822166.We investigate the extent that political identity, political belief content (i.e., attitude stances), and political belief system structure (i.e., relations among attitudes) differences are associated with affective polarization (i.e., viewing ingroup partisans positively and outgroup partisans negatively) in two multinational, cross-sectional studies (Study 1 N = 4,152, Study 2 N = 29,994). First, we found a large, positive association between political identity and group liking-participants liked their ingroup substantially more than their outgroup. Second, political belief system content and structure had opposite associations with group liking: Sharing similar belief system content with an outgroup was associated with more outgroup liking, but similarity with the ingroup was associated with less ingroup liking. The opposite pattern was found for political belief system structure. Thus, affective polarization was greatest when belief system content similarity was low and structure similarity was high.NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Democratic Governance in a Turbulent AgeNetherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC)AEIMinistry of Science and Technology, TaiwanFWOEuropean Commission Horizon 2020: 82216

Achieving harmony among different social identities within the self-concept:The consequences of having a group-based philosophy of life

It can be hard for individuals to manage multiple group identities within their self-concept (e.g., being a Christian and a woman). We examine how the inter-identity fit between potentially conflicting identities can become more harmonious through a self-defining group philosophy for life. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that holistic group identities (based in group philosophies for life that prescribe the behavior of their members in any situation, such as religion) become more strongly related to other identities in the self-concept (e.g., gender) when they are strongly self-defining (i.e., devotedly applied to daily life). In three studies we investigated the inter-identity fit between individuals' (highly holistic) religious identity and (less holistic) gender identity. Results provided converging support for our hypothesis across diverging methods (explicit questionnaires, more implicit associations, and a novel network analysis of group traits). We discuss the importance of understanding how some (i.e., holistic and self-defining) group identities may harmonize otherwise less harmonious group identities within one's self-concept

The psychology of online activism and social movements:Relations between online and offline collective action

We review online activism and its relations with offline collective action. Social media facilitate online activism, particularly by documenting and collating individual experiences, community building, norm formation, and development of shared realities. In theory, online activism could hinder offline protests, but empirical evidence for slacktivism is mixed. In some contexts, online and offline action could be unrelated because people act differently online versus offline, or because people restrict their actions to one domain. However, most empirical evidence suggests that online and offline activism are positively related and intertwined (no digital dualism), because social media posts can mobilise others for offline protest. Notwithstanding this positive relationship, the internet also enhances the visibility of activism and therefore facilitates repression in repressive contexts

The Association Between Threat and Politics Depends on the Type of Threat, the Political Domain, and the Country

Abstract: Theories link threat with right-wing political beliefs. We use the World Values Survey (60,378 participants) to explore how six types of threat (e.g., economic, violence, and surveillance) are associated with multiple political beliefs (e.g., cultural, economic, and ideological identification) in 56 countries/territories. Multilevel models with individuals nested in countries revealed that the threat-political belief association depends on the type of threat, the type of political belief, and the country. Economic-related threats tended to be associated with more left-wing economic political beliefs and violence-related threats tended to be associated with more cultural right-wing beliefs, but there were exceptions to this pattern. Additional analyses revealed that the associations between threat and political beliefs were different across countries. However, our analyses identified few country characteristics that could account for these cross-country differences. Our findings revealed that political beliefs and perceptions of threat are linked, but that the relationship is not simple

Pilot Data

This folder contains the data files associated with the manuscript titled "Achieving harmony among different social identities within the self-concept: The consequences of internalising a group-based philosophy of life". Paper available from Plos One. Pilot Study: The Pilot Study had two key objectives: First, to select two groups which differ in holisticness to focus on in subsequent studies; second to test our hypothesis that the consequences of self-definingness for the strength of inter-identity fit is moderated by holisticness. Five groups were selected for study; Christianity, Environmental groups, Healthy-living groups, Gender and Nationality. These groups were selected on a priori grounds because we expected them (a) to differ in holisticness, and (b) to prescribe content (e.g., philosophies) which are reasonably consistent or consensually shared across group members. We hypothesized that the first three groups (Christianity, Environmental and Healthy-living) would be perceived as prescribing a philosophy for life (i.e., highly holistic). It was expected that the more strongly self-defining these social identities were, the more strongly they would fit or overlap with other social identities within the self-concept. In contrast, we expected the latter two groups (Gender and Nationality) to be perceived as less holistic and therefore unrelated to inter-identity fit. Associated datasets: "PilotData MLM": Pilot data set for multi-level model "PilotData": SPSS Pilot Dat