The role of social identity in the explanation of collective action: An intergroup perspective on the Yellow Vests movement

Abstract

Social psychologists have developed influential theoretical models to understand intergroup conflicts, radicalism, and collective action. November 2018 saw the emergence of a new powerful movement in France named the Yellow Vests. Born on social media, the movement has sustained an unprecedented period of intense protests and violent clashes with the police, challenging the French government. As such, this movement offers an ideal context to examine the real‐world relevance of current social‐psychological theorizing. Using a social identity and self‐categorization perspective, two correlational studies (three samples, N = 1,849) tested the role of self‐categorization as a group member, or social identity, in accounting for individual participation in normative and nonnormative collective action. Using different operationalizations of identification, both studies confirm a powerful role of identification as a Yellow Vest and provided evidence that the effect of social media use on collective action is fully mediated by self‐categorization as a Yellow Vest. An alternative model suggesting that social media use mediated the relation between social identity and collective action was not supported by the data.

Bottom-up populism: How relative deprivation and populist attitudes mobilize leaderless anti-government protest

“…As the data for this study was collected as a part of a larger study on the Yellow Vests movement in France, we only use a subset of the measures in the present analysis. Other parts of the survey were presented in other manuscripts (Adam-Troian et al, 2021;Urbanska, Pehrson, & Guimond, 2021). All variables collected as a part of the study are disclosed in the Supplementary Materials.…”

“…At some point, the "Gilet Jaune", a yellow security jacket that drivers are legally required to possess in their cars, was suggested as a symbol to express support for the protests. Much like for other contemporary grassroots movements, social media (particularly Facebook) played an important role in generating collective selfhood and mobilizing collective action (Adam-Troian, Mahfud, Urbanska, & Guimond, 2021). The relationship between online and offline mobilization was reciprocal as street protests increased online support for the movement (Boyer, Delemotte, Gauthier, Rollet, & Schmutz, 2020).…”

“…Scholars have argued that because of its diversity, the YV cannot be clearly located on a left-right continuum. This observation might also explain why established populist actors from both sides failed to monopolize the movement (Adam-Troian et al, 2021). Guerra et al (2019) demonstrated that even if YV supporters had tended to support candidates from the political extremes in the past, most of them considered their political views as inconsistent with ideological distinctions on a left vs. right continuum.…”

“…It is possible that populist sentiments were mainly embraced by the politicized part of the movement, whereas other parts used protesting as a channel to express more deeply rooted psychological concerns ). Yet others may seek comfort from psychological benefits that emerge from the acquisition of a new social identity (Jetten, Haslam, & Alexander, 2012; for empirical evidence, see Adam-Troian et al, 2021).…”

Dynamical modelling of street protests using the Yellow Vest Movement and Khabarovsk as case studies

“…In particular, it seems reasonable to assume that for the mature protesters collective effects play a more significant role. Since experienced protesters, due to their definition in our model, have already spent some time (probably of considerable duration) participating together in street actions, it seems likely that they have established strong ties between themselves, in particular based on shared ingroup emotions 41 , 42 . Correspondingly, the opinion of others in their group is more likely to be important for them than it is in other groups, cf.…”