Leda Blackwood

If it matters for the group then it matters to me: Collective action outcomes for seasoned activists

The present article reports a longitudinal study of the psychological antecedents for, and outcomes of, collective action for a community sample of activists. At Time 1, activist identification influenced intentions to engage in collective action behaviours protesting the Iraq war, both directly and indirectly via perceptions of the efficacy of these behaviours for achieving group goals, as well as perceptions of individual-level benefits. At Time 2, identification was associated with differences in the dimensions on which the movements success was evaluated. In the context of the movements failure to achieve its stated objectives of troop withdrawal, those with strong activist identity placed less importance on influencing government decision making. The implications are discussed in terms of models of collective action and social identity, focusing on a dynamic model that relates identification with a group to evaluations of instrumentality at a group and individual level; and to beliefs about strategic responses to achieve group goals.

I know who I am, but who do they think I am? Muslim perspectives on encounters with airport authorities

Abstract In this paper we report an analysis of individual and group interviews with thirty-eight Scottish Muslims concerning their encounters with authority – especially those at airports. Our analysis shows that a key theme in interviewees’ talk of their experience in this context concerns the denial and misrecognition of valued identities such as being British, being respectable and being Muslim. One reason why such experiences are so problematic concerns the denial of agency associated with being positioned in terms that are not ones own. The implications of these findings for understanding the dynamics of intergroup relations are discussed.

Speaking for Others: The Pros and Cons of Group Advocates using Collective Language

We examined how rhetorical style affects evaluations of group advocates, and how these evaluations are moderated by group identification. University students were given a letter to the editor defending student welfare. The argument was either constructed using personal language (‘I believe’) or collective language (‘we believe’). Furthermore, the letter was either attributed to an official advocate (president of the student union) or an unofficial advocate (a rank-and-file member of the student body). Consistent with the social identity perspective, participants who showed strong identification as a university student thought that the group would feel better represented by official advocates using collective rather than personal language. Low identifiers, however, did not rate the rhetorical styles differently on representativeness. Furthermore, low identifiers (but not high identifiers) rated official advocates as more likable and more effective when they used personal rather than collective language. The discussion focuses on the conflict low identifiers might feel between (a) needing to homogenize with other group members in order to maximize the influence and political effectiveness of their message at the collective level, and (b) protecting themselves against categorization threat.

Data set for "Choosing between conciliatory and oppositional leaders"

In this paper we examine the role of out-group signals and in-group leader tactics in the choice and evaluation of rival in-group leader candidates. Four on-line surveys were conducted using qualtrics. Each of these surveys is included in the dataset. Also included are the SPSS data files for each of the four studies as well as a syntax file which provides the syntax for the coding and transformations of items used in the analyses for the four studies. Further information on the analyses conducted specifically for this paper are found in the paper itself.