The psychology of online activism and social movements: Relations between online and offline collective action

H Greijdanus; de Matos Fernandes C A; Felicity Turner-Zwinkels; A Honari; Carla Roos; Hannes Rosenbusch; T Postmes

doi:10.1016/J.COPSYC.2020.03.003

The psychology of online activism and social movements: Relations between online and offline collective action

H Greijdanus^*, de Matos Fernandes C A, Felicity Turner-Zwinkels, A Honari, Carla Roos, Hannes Rosenbusch, T Postmes

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

We review online activism and its relations with offline collective action. Social media facilitate online activism, particularly by documenting and collating individual experiences, community building, norm formation, and development of shared realities. In theory, online activism could hinder offline protests, but empirical evidence for slacktivism is mixed. In some contexts, online and offline action could be unrelated because people act differently online versus offline, or because people restrict their actions to one domain. However, most empirical evidence suggests that online and offline activism are positively related and intertwined (no digital dualism), because social media posts can mobilise others for offline protest. Notwithstanding this positive relationship, the internet also enhances the visibility of activism and therefore facilitates repression in repressive contexts.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	49-54
Journal	Current Opinion in Psychology
Volume	35
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/J.COPSYC.2020.03.003
Publication status	Published - 2020

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SP Turner Zwinkels the psychology of online activism COnP 2020Final published version, 226 KBLicence: CC BY

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title = "The psychology of online activism and social movements: Relations between online and offline collective action",

abstract = "We review online activism and its relations with offline collective action. Social media facilitate online activism, particularly by documenting and collating individual experiences, community building, norm formation, and development of shared realities. In theory, online activism could hinder offline protests, but empirical evidence for slacktivism is mixed. In some contexts, online and offline action could be unrelated because people act differently online versus offline, or because people restrict their actions to one domain. However, most empirical evidence suggests that online and offline activism are positively related and intertwined (no digital dualism), because social media posts can mobilise others for offline protest. Notwithstanding this positive relationship, the internet also enhances the visibility of activism and therefore facilitates repression in repressive contexts.",

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AU - Greijdanus, H

AU - C A, de Matos Fernandes

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AU - Honari, A

AU - Roos, Carla

AU - Rosenbusch, Hannes

AU - Postmes, T

PY - 2020

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AB - We review online activism and its relations with offline collective action. Social media facilitate online activism, particularly by documenting and collating individual experiences, community building, norm formation, and development of shared realities. In theory, online activism could hinder offline protests, but empirical evidence for slacktivism is mixed. In some contexts, online and offline action could be unrelated because people act differently online versus offline, or because people restrict their actions to one domain. However, most empirical evidence suggests that online and offline activism are positively related and intertwined (no digital dualism), because social media posts can mobilise others for offline protest. Notwithstanding this positive relationship, the internet also enhances the visibility of activism and therefore facilitates repression in repressive contexts.

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JO - Current Opinion in Psychology

JF - Current Opinion in Psychology

ER -

The psychology of online activism and social movements: Relations between online and offline collective action

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