Why do people protest, and do protests work?

“There’s a large body of research from personality and social psychologists that show that people tend to get motivated to participate in action when they have a sense of injustice. Oftentimes that injustice is related to some sort of social identity that they have—like gender, race, sexual orientation, something like that. But it doesn’t have to be. It could be for events happening in other parts of the world, for example. And they also have to have a feeling that the only way to fix these problems is to work together collectively as opposed to individually.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Lauren Duncan, Ph.D.
William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Psychology, Smith College Grab This Quote

“In order for somebody to participate in a protest, they have to believe something’s wrong, that it could be different, and that their participation could make a difference—could conceivably make a difference. So, it’s the job of organizers to show that something’s wrong, suggest an alternative, and invest people with a feeling of efficacy.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

David S. Meyer, Ph.D.
Professor of sociology, University of California, Irvine Grab This Quote

“For motivation purposes, I think, obviously, a commitment to a cause is important but also being embedded in networks with like-minded individuals who can—you might go to a protest with, who can make you aware of these things. Deterrence factors can include repression. If there’s arrests and things like that, that can deter people. People’s—what we call biographical availability. Do they have a family? Do they have free time? People with families don’t have as much time; they maybe have more to lose; things like that.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Andrew Martin, Ph.D.
Professor of sociology, Ohio State University Grab This Quote

“I think two factors motivate people to participate in protest. One is the level of arousal—physiological, biological emotional arousal that they reach in response to events. Second factor is how that arousal relates to their ideology.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Fathali Moghaddam, Ph.D.
Professor of psychology, Georgetown University Grab This Quote

“It’s tempting and maybe even intuitive to think that one event or one conflagration is the thing that sets off protests—kind of sui generis out of nowhere. And, in fact that is not true. Social movements—scholars of collective behavior—scholars have made the observation for many, many decades now that there is almost always a level of grievance, or complaint, or a set of concerns that is lurking. It might be ambiguous. It might be amorphous. It might be nascent in the public, but there are small groups of people who are working on these issues—almost always in the background, so that when a world historical event such as the attack by Hamas in Israel and then Israel’s reactions to that event—that set of events—when that occurs, then these networks of people, these leadership structures, this level of organization can really be brought to the fore. And that’s when we see these protests arising.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Amy Binder, Ph.D.
SNF Agora Institute Professor of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University Grab This Quote

“Protests tend to become more effective if they can get—the protesters can get the, quote, silent majority on their side. So the majority of Americans, for example, are politically moderate. And so they’re not typically convinced by extreme actions. So sometimes extreme actions can turn them off.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Lauren Duncan, Ph.D.
William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Psychology, Smith College Grab This Quote

“Protest always exists in a political context. You can’t turn a silk purse into a sow’s ear or vice versa. You’re operating in an environment that you can’t control. The better able you are to line up with prevalent cultural values, the more likely you are to affect public opinion and affect policy change.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

David S. Meyer, Ph.D.
Professor of sociology, University of California, Irvine Grab This Quote

“A lot of factors: I think one of them is mobilizing volunteers that can help organize, help get the word out, things like that. Protests, they just don’t happen—sort of, kind of think of them as spontaneous. They really aren’t spontaneous. They require a lot of planning. So having people who can help plan that is really key. Getting positive media attention is also important. We think about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The way they frame their movement around issues of civil rights—rights that every American should enjoy—was something that sort of captured the national attention. Again, the use of innovative tactics can draw media attention. So getting press and again, in the case of the Civil Rights Movement, nonviolent tactics that really captured the imagination of people and brought repression onto them but also forced the federal government to step in and address those issues.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Andrew Martin, Ph.D.
Professor of sociology, Ohio State University Grab This Quote

“The factors that make some protests more effective than others are really related to the extent to which the public is already motivated on a particular issue, such as a war, and the extent to which the protests line up with the ideologies that are already out there in society. And so, if the protests are endorsing presently available ideologies, they’re more effective.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Fathali Moghaddam, Ph.D.
Professor of psychology, Georgetown University Grab This Quote

“Key constituencies involved in these protests are, of course, the protesters themselves, and in this case, the protesters are students, and some of the key questions would be whether the students are seen by the public to have legitimacy in this space about these questions. So can the students convince others that they’re the conscience of society? I mean, there is a long history of that. But others might think that they’re not necessarily the conscience of society, but rather that there are a bunch of privileged elites who have too much time on their hands and not enough to do with that time.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Amy Binder, Ph.D.
SNF Agora Institute Professor of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University Grab This Quote

“Authorities should take several factors into account when responding to protest movements, in particular on college campuses. The administrators should recognize that the students have an implicit understanding with the administrators that protesting is part of their education. It’s developmentally appropriate. It’s what happens when young adults learn about new and outrageous things. And they have a sense of idealism—developmentally this is normal. They also should understand that if there is a strong police presence or some sort of response that leads to violence against the protesters, that reaction may actually backfire, as we’ve seen. It actually ends up generating sympathy, often, toward the protesters, especially because everybody is carrying around a video camera these days, and we all have access to computers in our hands so you can post those videos immediately.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Lauren Duncan, Ph.D.
William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Psychology, Smith College Grab This Quote

“The key thing to remember is that harsh conduct from authorities or repression can easily backfire, creating a new cause and creating sympathy for protesters. As an authority, you want to let people get their message out without valorizing it or turning it into something heroic.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

David S. Meyer, Ph.D.
Professor of sociology, University of California, Irvine Grab This Quote

“So oftentimes when authorities have to think about it, there are really kind of two things at play here. The first is maintaining public order. But the second thing that’s equally important is protecting protesters’ First Amendment protected rights of assembly and free speech. So I think that’s—we’ve seen that lately that, how do you balance those two things?” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Andrew Martin, Ph.D.
Professor of sociology, Ohio State University Grab This Quote

“National governments should take into account two main issues when responding to protest movements. One is the extent to which their endorsement or opposition to a protest movement is going to line up with justice as it is seen by the people. A second issue is how their response to the protest movement is lining up with international principles of justice, such as the human rights declaration from the U.N.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Fathali Moghaddam, Ph.D.
Professor of psychology, Georgetown University Grab This Quote

“I think authorities really need to consider what their goals are. And two that pop out immediately to me are the safety of all campus constituents. And then, also, campus leaders have to be concerned about the constitutionally protected rights of free speech and assembly—and consider what their policies and procedures are for restricting those and to not overly restrict, not overly react, but to be mindful of both of those very important things: safety and those freedoms protected as American citizens.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Amy Binder, Ph.D.
SNF Agora Institute Professor of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University Grab This Quote

“My advice for journalists covering protest movements is to talk to the protesters themselves. Ask them why they’re doing it and what’s motivating them? Because it’s going to differ from person to person, and there’s not one particular motivation that motivates everybody. And each protester is going to have a different experience.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Lauren Duncan, Ph.D.
William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Psychology, Smith College Grab This Quote

“When journalists cover protest movements, the first thing they should know is what actually matters to the activists. Start with the idea that they’re sincere and trying to change the world a little bit—to make the world a little bit better in their vision. And when you start with that premise, you’re going to be able to make better sense of the tactics they choose and the rhetoric they use.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

David S. Meyer, Ph.D.
Professor of sociology, University of California, Irvine Grab This Quote

“We tend to get caught up in focusing on the event itself or the conflict, perhaps, between police and protesters. But I think taking a longer view, looking at kind of what’s behind the scenes of the protests. Again, as I’ve said earlier, these aren’t often spontaneous things. They’re organized. So talking to organizers and finding out more about that, I think, rather than just focusing maybe on sort of the most dramatic part of it, which is the conflict.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Andrew Martin, Ph.D.
Professor of sociology, Ohio State University Grab This Quote

“My main advice to journalists covering the protest movement is to look at the big picture, not get sucked in by hour-by-hour events, such as a particular aggressive action, or a particular image that’s shot on a day, on an hour. But to look at the big picture and see the protests and the conflicts they’re covering within a global context. This is where we have to use a gestalt perspective and remember that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Fathali Moghaddam, Ph.D.
Professor of psychology, Georgetown University Grab This Quote

“I am really appreciating what I’m learning from local journalists—so whether that’s in Texas or Los Angeles, people who know their communities better than national journalists do in a lot of cases. And I also think it’s really important that journalists try not to be overly obsessed, say, with what is happening just here and now but to try to provide more of a historical background, understand the context better, linking up these particular actions to those that have taken place in the past. I think there’s a time and place for all kinds of media reporting, but I am finding that incredibly helpful and important for understanding what’s happening today.” (Posted May 6, 2024 | Download Video)

Amy Binder, Ph.D.
SNF Agora Institute Professor of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University Grab This Quote