Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.
Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2020 Apr 7;15(4):e0230918. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230918. eCollection 2020.
Little is known about how activists and non-activists perceive and evaluate each other. This is important because activists often depend on societal support to achieve their goals. We examined these perceptions and evaluations in three field experiments set in different contexts, i.e., student protests in the Netherlands 2014/2015 (Study 1, activist sample N = 190; Study 2, non-activist sample N = 145), and environmental protests in Paris in 2015 (Study 3, activist sample N = 112). Through a scenario method, we manipulated the motivations expressed for (in)action by a member of the other group (i.e., an activist or non-activist) and measured individuals' perceptions and evaluations. Findings showed that activists perceived a non-activist as selfish and felt personally distant to them, especially when a non-activist dismissed moral obligation for action (Study 1 and 3). By contrast, non-activists had a rather positive view of activists, especially in response to an activist communicating collective concerns for action (Study 2). Study 4 (N = 103) further supported this pattern of findings by showing that activists perceived larger intergroup differences than non-activists. We conclude that mutual perceptions and evaluations of activists and non-activists are asymmetrical, which may have (negative) consequences for mobilization for social change.
对于活动家和非活动家如何相互感知和评价，人们知之甚少。这一点很重要，因为活动家往往需要社会支持才能实现自己的目标。我们通过三个在不同背景下进行的现场实验来研究这些看法和评价，这些背景包括：2014/2015 年荷兰的学生抗议活动（研究 1，活动家样本 N=190；研究 2，非活动家样本 N=145），以及 2015 年巴黎的环境抗议活动（研究 3，活动家样本 N=112）。通过情景方法，我们操纵了另一个群体（即活动家或非活动家）成员为（不）行动表达的动机，并测量了个人的感知和评价。研究结果表明，活动家认为非活动家是自私的，并与他们产生了个人上的疏远，尤其是当非活动家否认行动的道德义务时（研究 1 和 3）。相比之下，非活动家对活动家的看法较为积极，尤其是在活动家表达对行动的集体关注时（研究 2）。研究 4（N=103）通过进一步证实了这一发现模式，表明活动家比非活动家感知到更大的群体间差异。我们得出结论，活动家和非活动家之间的相互感知和评价是不对称的，这可能对社会变革的动员产生（负面）影响。
