When nonactivists care: Group efficacy mediates the effect of social identification and perceived instability on the legitimacy of collective action

Abstract

In recent years, multiple social movements have emerged around the world. In addition, public surveys indicate the highest recorded levels of support for protest. In this context of acceptance of collective action, we examine the role of nonactivists in the perceived legitimacy of social movements, as this “passive” support can contribute to social change. Given that antecedents of legitimacy have been neglected in the literature, we carried out a survey ( N = 605) among a general sample of the population in Chile to shed light on this issue. We found that social identification with movements and perceived instability predicted the perceived legitimacy of protests by social movements, and that both variables had only indirect effects through group efficacy. This suggests that perceiving social movements as able to achieve success can lead nonactivists to perceive their actions as legitimate, highlighting the importance to movements of being seen to be effective.

Mobilizing IDEAS in the Scottish Referendum: Predicting voting intention and well‐being with the Identity‐Deprivation‐Efficacy‐Action‐Subjective well‐being model

“…SIMCA, which was derived from the results of this meta‐analysis, postulates that identity influences collective efficacy as well as affective injustices and that all three motivate collective protest actions directly. Research in Chile also indicates that the influence of perceptions of stability and group identification on the perceived legitimacy of social action are mediated by collective efficacy (Jiménez‐Moya, Miranda, Drury, Saavedra, & González, ).…”

‘Coming together to awaken our democracy’: Examining precursors of emergent social identity and collective action among activists and non‐activists in the 2019–2020 ‘Chile despertó’ protests

“…Collective action scholars have traditionally argued that activists , that is, a social group within a wider society committed to particular ideological causes of injustice, constitute a driving force of any social movement. However, witnessing a rise in social justice movements across the globe made many collective action scholars recognize a crucial role of non‐activists , that is, members of the general public, in sustaining social justice causes to the extent that they legitimize demands of activists (see Jiménez‐Moya, Miranda, Drury, Saavedra, & González, 2019; Kutlaca, van Zomeren, & Epstude, 2020). Indeed, many social movements (e.g., Egypt's Arab Spring, Ukraine's Euromaidan) have been successful in influencing key decision‐makers in the respective countries to the extent that members of the larger public sustained civil resistance and became part of it (see Uluğ, Chayinska, & Tropp, 2021).…”

Including political context in the psychological analysis of collective action: Development and validation of a measurement scale for subjective political openness

“…Accordingly, this dimension indicates the extent to which people perceive that public opinion validates protests (legitimacy at a collective level) rather than referring to their personal preferences (legitimacy at an individual level) (cf. Chayinska et al, 2017;Jiménez-Moya et al, 2019). Higher scores here indicate that people think that public opinion legitimizes protest.…”