Identifying with a specific movement organization, not just its broad category, predicts participation

Evidence

Although not specifically designed to test the validity of the conceptualization of politicized collective identity developed in this article, recent research on social movement participation indeed points to the unique explanatory power of politicized collective identity with respect to collective action (Simon et al., 1998; Stürmer & Simon, 2001; Stürmer, Simon, Loewy, Duhme, & Jörger, 2001). This research was conducted in several different social movement contexts, such as the older people’s movement in Germany; the fat acceptance movement in Germany and the United States; and the gay movement, again both in the United States and Germany. … Multiple regression analyses revealed that identification with the broader recruitment category made no unique contribution to the prediction of behavioral intentions or actual participation, whereas identification with the more politicized social movement organization had a reliable and unique (positive) effect in all cases (with one exception discussed below). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4450

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the collective identity and collective action literature, and to Olson’s logic of collective action debate elsewhere in this book. — connects to: Anti-hierarchical movement structures fail to integrate and educate new members; Category definitions determine who mobilizes, for what, and who leads — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 75