A Study of Participants in an Anti‐Vietnam War Demonstration¹

What attitudinal and cognitive factors prompt an individual to participate in protests designed to change government policy? This study found that participants in a large‐scale anti‐Vietnam war demonstration believed that a good citizen should play an active role in the political process. They also responded more positively toward ideological than traditional U.S. symbols, were oriented toward the international rather than national political system, and were concerned more with humanity in general than with any particular political system. Nonstudent protestors leaned toward socialism and America's Populist traditions and felt less politically efficacious than student demonstrators.