Affect, Efficacy, and Protest Intentions: Testing a Multilevel, Dual-Pathway Model of Collective Action

What are the causes of anger and efficacy, and their consequences for protest intentions? Here we propose a multilevel dual pathway model of collective action where anger and efficacy operate at multiple levels of analysis. To test our model, we administer a factorial survey experiment of student protest to a disproportionate stratified random sample of undergraduate students (N = 880). We find that the indirect effect of anger on protest intentions follows two routes—one dispositional and one situational—while the indirect effect of efficacy flows through a situational channel. We also find that the dual pathways of anger and efficacy are triggered by a broad set of situational conditions (incidental grievances, selective rewards and punishments, collective action frames, and size of the protest), while anger is also a function of a narrow set of dispositional factors (protest norms and attitudes). Our results imply that understanding the multilevel nature of anger and efficacy can help social movement organizations better coordinate collective action.