The Good and Bad of Social Change: Ambivalence Toward Activist Groups |
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Authors: | Amanda B Diekman Wind Goodfriend |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Psychology, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056, USA;(2) Department of Psychology, Buena Vista University, Storm Lake, IA, USA |
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Abstract: | Inherent to any substantive social change is the disruption of the status quo. To the extent that individuals are motivated
to preserve the current social system (e.g., Jost & Banaji, British Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 1–27, 1994), even social change in pursuit of positive goals might evoke ambivalent reactions. Although activist groups might elicit
positivity because they are assumed to have positive qualities and they seek positive goals, they might evoke negativity because
their actions disrupt the current social system. These experiments examined two different forms of disruption of the status
quo. In Experiment 1, a group gaining power elicited greater ambivalence than a group losing power, regardless of the valence
of the group’s goal. Importantly, the conditions that evoked ambivalence did not inhibit behavioral support. Experiment 2
found that a new group elicited more ambivalence than an established group when pursuing a positive goal. Consistent with
theories emphasizing maintenance of the status quo, these findings demonstrate that attitudes toward activist groups do not
derive solely from self-interest.
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Keywords: | Social change Ambivalence Activism Social processes |
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