Social identity and perceived harm of extreme protest actions.

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Psychology
Degree name
Master of Arts
Publisher
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Language
English
Date
2022
Authors
Qin Ziti, Zack
Abstract

Protests have been a common theme in recent years. Many peaceful protests tend to become violent because it attracts media and public attention. However, extreme protest actions such as blocking roads, looting stores, destroying properties, spreading hateful words against certain groups of people, and physically hurting others tend to undermine public support. In the present study, we aim to explore the link between a person’s social identity and how he or she perceive harm caused by extreme protest actions. In the first study, we set up a survey experiment asking participants to estimate damage caused to a neighborhood, they were randomly put into three different groups. In one group the participants were told the neighbourhood was destroyed by protesters who share the same political ideology with the participant, in the second group they were told the protesters share opposing political ideology, while the third control group they were told the destruction was caused by a natural disaster. Study 1’s results had shown some promising effect of the connection between a person’s social identity and perceived harm of extreme protest actions. In the second study we made some slight changes but found similar results nevertheless. In the third study we were trying to establish a link the effect we found earlier to moral reasoning. However, the third study did not show enough evidence for the moral reasoning approach. Nevertheless, we have explored in the realm of extreme protest and social identity and found nuance phenomenon that is worth to be study upon in the future.

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All Rights Reserved