Narratives of Success and Failure of Past Collective Action Influence Intentions to Engage in Future Action: The Case of the 2017 Women's March

Rezarta Bilali, Sam Freel, Micaela Varela

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The 2017 Women's March was estimated to be the largest single-day protest in recorded history. Yet, whether the March was a success or a failure was debated in national media. How does framing of past collective action as success or failure influence group members’ subsequent motivation to engage in collective action? Three studies (n = 1,497) examined the impact of success and failure framing of the 2017 Women's March on women's intentions to engage in collective action for gender equality and its psychological antecedents. Success framing increased efficacy beliefs, hope, and action intentions. Failure ascribed to external factors increased conventional action intentions, and it also increased radical action intentions among high movement identifiers. We did not find evidence for the hypothesized demobilizing effects of internally ascribed failure. In sum, this research provides evidence for mobilizing effects of past success, but not for demobilizing effects of past failure. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ’s website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/03616843241286811

Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalPsychology of Women Quarterly
DOIs
StateAccepted/In press - 2024

Keywords

  • collective action
  • failure
  • framing
  • gender equality
  • success
  • Women's March

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Gender Studies
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • General Psychology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Narratives of Success and Failure of Past Collective Action Influence Intentions to Engage in Future Action: The Case of the 2017 Women's March'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this