A Case for Social Change in Iran: Greater Support and Mobilization Potential for Nonviolent Than Violent Social Movements

• Published in: Peace and conflict 2019-02, Vol.25 (1), p.3-12
• Main Authors: Orazani, S. Nima, Leidner, Bernhard
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attitudes; Attribution; Collective action; Female; Human; Imagination; Male; Mentalization; Mobilization; Morality; Nonviolence; Social activism; Social Change; Social Movements; Sociocultural Factors; Test Construction; Violence
• ISSN: 1078-1919; 1532-7949
• DOI: 10.1037/pac0000349

We extended recent experimental research on the consequences of social movements' use of strategic nonviolence versus violence to a new situational and cultural context. In the context of the Iranian Green movement, whose use of nonviolence in 2009 was rather unsuccessful, 122 Iranians (mostly Reformists) imagined the same movement reemerging in the future and using either violent or nonviolent strategies. Consistent with our hypotheses, participants were more willing to support the nonviolent movement and had more positive attitudes toward joining it as compared to the violent movement. The mechanism underlying these effects relies on attributions of greater mental capacity and morality to nonviolent movements. Implications for research on collective action, social movements, and social change are discussed. Public Significance Statement Using a sample from a non-Western country, Iran, this study suggests that even in the context in which third-party observers have experienced a failed nonviolent movement, they still see nonviolent strategies as more moral. They also think that the members of a nonviolent (rather than violent) movement are more capable of experiencing pain and suffering. These perceptions lead them to be more willing to support and join the movement.