Rebel with a Cause: Personal Significance from Political Activism Predicts Willingness to Self‐Sacrifice

Abstract

Given the social importance of political activism, it is critical to understand what motivates individuals to engage in it. Past research has predominantly focused on individual and collective frustrations as factors that motivate political actions. At the same time, the role of the positive experiences that activists gain from their political engagement was largely neglected. Drawing on quest for significance theory, we proposed that when people engage in political actions on behalf of important social values, they gain a sense of personal significance, and as a result of these positive feelings, they are more willing to self-sacrifice for the cause in the future. We tested that hypothesis in six studies, which included both online and offline samples of political activists engaged in different forms of activism that challenge the neoliberal order: activism for a radical left-wing party (N = 84), a pro-democratic social movement (N = 1,409), feminist activism (N = 158, N = 258), environmental activism (N = 396), and activism for labor and healthcare rights (N = 156). The results we obtained were in line with our hypothesized model. We discuss the implications of our findings for individuals who want to mobilize support for political movements.

When does activism benefit well-being? Evidence from a longitudinal study of Clinton voters in the 2016 U.S. presidential election

“…Or, those highly identified with Clinton may have been acting for value-expressive reasons, which can also have positive consequences for well-being. For example, research suggests that when engaging in activism is consistent with an individual’s values and goals, the more personally significant they feel as a result [47].…”

“Return of the repressed”: Exposure to police violence increases protest and self-sacrifice intentions for theYellow Vests

“…This is because Significance Quest theory allows taking into account the role of social networks and identity related factors in facilitating extreme behavior (see Kruglanski et al, 2018). Significance Gain motivates both peaceful activism and radical protest behavior (Jasko et al, 2019) and Significance Loss is a main driver of radical intentions for the YV cause (e.g., engaging in terrorist activities for the cause) as well as a positive correlate of YV identity (Mahfud & Adam-Troian, 2019). Experiencing infringement of dignity or feelings of failure leads to increased collectivistic values which facilitates social means of coping with such situations (Kruglanski et al, 2012).…”

Motivational underpinnings of support for radical political leaders

“…For instance, a series of studies showed that when political activists (e.g., feminists, environmentalists) perceived their cause as personally important, they derived more pride and sense of personal significance from engagement on behalf of this cause and, as a consequence, they wanted to sacrifice more for it in the future (Jasko, Szastok, Grzymala-Moszczynska, Maj & Kruglanski, 2019). The present study extends this research by testing this mechanism in the context of voter engagement for political candidates.…”

“…When the need for personal significance is frustrated, people are indeed more likely to engage in extreme actions for a political cause (Dugas et al, 2016;Jasko, LaFree, & Kruglanski, 2017;Webber et al, 2018). For example, when people felt rejected and disrespected, they were more attracted to extreme political tactics (Jasko et al, 2019). At the same time, involvement in actions on behalf of the valued cause was related to increased feelings of personal significance.…”