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

What are the consequences of affect and efficacy for protest intentions, and do these consequences stem from personal disposition and/or situational characteristics? Here, we test a dual-pathway model of collective action in which anger and efficacy operate at multiple levels of analysis. To test this model, we administer a factorial survey experiment of student protest to a random sample of undergraduate students (N = 880). We find that the effect of anger on protest intentions follows two routes—one dispositional and one situational—and that the effect of efficacy flows through a situational channel. We also find that anger and efficacy are triggered by a broad set of situational conditions (incidental grievances, selective rewards and punishments, collective action frames, and protest size) and that anger is also a function of a narrow set of dispositional factors (protest attitudes). Taken together, our findings support a multilevel, dual-pathway model of collective action.