Survey results that extreme protests reduce supporters rather than increase


by

Phil Roeder

Demonstration activities are sometimes conducted as protests against political and social problems, but sometimes the activities become extreme, blocking roads, occupying buildings, and in times of bad times developing into riots. Although there are cases in which the activity is made widely known to the public and they take aggressive actions to increase the number of supporters, a paper published by an American research team said, `` Extreme protests reduce supporters rather than increase them. The result is shown.

The activist's dilemma: Extreme protest actions reduce popular support for social movements .-- PsycNET
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-02398-001

New psychology research finds extreme protest actions reduce popular support for social movements
https://www.psypost.org/2020/05/new-psychology-research-finds-extreme-protest-actions-reduce-popular-support-for-social-movements-56906



Matthew Feinberg, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto , said the author of the paper, 'I am interested in social change and progress, and I wonder if the strategies of social movements are most effective in influencing public opinion. I had it. '

The research team targeted a total of 3399 subjects, broad social progressive and conservative issues such as 'animal rights protection' 'anti- Donald Trump President' 'ban on abortion' 'unequal treatment for blacks' , We investigated how the protests of those who support the claim affected subject consciousness. According to the research team, it was found that the more the protest behavior such as 'incendiary language use', 'road blockade', 'vandalism', etc., the more the subjects decreased their support for political claims.

The decline in support for the assertion was confirmed even when the subjects had a political and social sympathy for the social movement before the experiment, and it was found that the extreme protest movement reduced the supporter rather than increasing it. .. 'We found that the extreme anti-Trump movement not only made people dislike it, but also made it more supportive of Trump. It was like a repulsion.' Says Associate Professor Feinberg.


by

Jeanne Menjoulet

The reason why the radical protests do not get the support of the people is that the research team 'caused the radical protests to be considered immoral'. As political activities become more radical, people feel that their activities are immoral, and they lose their sympathy and unity with their claims and eventually cannot support them.

The results of this study find that 'non-violent campaigns have succeeded in larger-scale political transformation than violent campaigns', and the massive protests that occurred around the world from 1945 to 2014. It is also in agreement with the survey results analyzed. “Social movements face a daunting dilemma. Extreme protests are a very useful way to spread the word about activities and raise awareness about the problem. These actions are featured in the news media and social. It is spread in the media, while people generally have a negative reaction to extreme protests, 'says Associate Professor Feinberg.

”Professor Feinberg said,“ People who originally tended to support social movements even dropped their support after witnessing the movement developing into extreme protests. The question is how well the social movements can overcome this dilemma. Obviously they want to convey the message, but at the same time they don't want to lose potential supporters. ' He pointed out that dealing with protests is a big issue.

Of course, extreme protests are not always aimed at expanding supporters, and activists resented by the current situation and those who feel that it is impossible to change anyway can express themselves and distract themselves without considering the long-term effects. You may run into extreme actions with. In addition, Associate Professor Feinberg added that the minority in the group may take action without regard to the opinions of the majority.



in Note, Posted by log1h_ik