Fighting for Human Rights: Collective Action by Actual and Potential Activists

Studying collective action with activists is increasingly important due to the large number of social movements fighting for human rights. Many studies are only partly conducted with actual activists and studying both actual and potential activists is important to understand how to foster people's engagement. This research aimed to test two different models of Collective Action (Social Identity Model of Collective Action and the Encapsulation Model of Social Identity in Collective Action) to better understand how models work using two different samples: 1) a group of activists who were already participating in a protest at the time (N = 155), and 2) a group of potential activists (N = 232). A questionnaire evaluating Social Identification, Moral Outrage and Collective Efficacy was administered. Results show the Encapsulation Model of Social Identity in Collective Action as the model that better explains relationships between variables in both samples. The "efficacy path" is shown as the better way to make people engaged. The discussion highlights the meaningful relevance of the findings for the future understanding and conceptualization of activism in order to develop effective recruitment campaigns.