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

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

Keywords

collective action gender equality framing Women's March success failure

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