Sociopolitical ideologies as predictors of collective action across liberal and conservative domains: Injustice-based anger, efficacy, and empathy as mediators

Abstract

Social change can be spurred by collective action. Yet not all forms of collective action are in the name of social progress. People seeking to advance or oppose social progress can be ideologically driven to organize and push their agendas. In exploring psychological reasons for collective action, social scientists have focused mostly on social identity. Researchers have begun to study sociopolitical ideologies as another key motivator of collective action. Drawing on both collective action and sociopolitical ideology literatures, we investigate sociopolitical ideologies (right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation) as predictors of collective action across politically liberal (MeToo movement, Climate Change) and conservative (Anti-Abortion, Illegal Immigration) domains. Results from two American samples (n = 681; n = 359) show that right-wing ideologies relate to more collective action in politically conservative domains and less collective action in politically liberal domains. Between-person differences in empathy, injustice-based anger, and efficacy explain these associations.