When Are Social Protests Effective?

Eric Shuman; Amit Goldenberg; Tamar Saguy; Eran Halperin; Martijn van Zomeren

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2023.10.003

When Are Social Protests Effective?

Trends Cogn Sci. 2024 Mar;28(3):252-263. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.10.003. Epub 2023 Oct 31.

Authors

Eric Shuman¹, Amit Goldenberg², Tamar Saguy³, Eran Halperin⁴, Martijn van Zomeren⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, New York University, New York City, NY, USA; Negotiation Organization and Markets, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Digital Data and Design Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: ems718@nyu.edu.
² Negotiation Organization and Markets, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Digital Data and Design Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Department of Psychology, Reichman University (IDC, Herzliya), Herzliya, Israel.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.

PMID: 37914605
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.10.003

Abstract

Around the world, people engage in social protests aimed at addressing major societal problems. Certain protests have led to significant progress, yet other protests have resulted in little demonstrable change. We introduce a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of social protest made up of three components: (i) what types of action are being considered; (ii) what target audience is being affected; and (iii) what outcomes are being evaluated? We then review relevant research to suggest how the framework can help synthesize conflicting findings in the literature. This synthesis points to two key conclusions: that nonviolent protests are effective at mobilizing sympathizers to support the cause, whereas more disruptive protests can motivate support for policy change among resistant individuals.

Keywords: collective action; effectiveness; social change; social movements.

Publication types

Review