Logo image
Transforming "apathy into movement": the role of prosocial emotions in motivating action for social change
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Transforming "apathy into movement": the role of prosocial emotions in motivating action for social change

E.F. Thomas, C. McGarty and K.I. Mavor
Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol.13(4), pp.310-333
2009
url
Link to Published Version *Subscription may be requiredView

Abstract

emotion social identity helping/prosocial behavior group processes morality
This article explores the synergies between recent developments in the social identity of helping, and advantaged groups' prosocial emotion. The authors review the literature on the potential of guilt, sympathy, and outrage to transform advantaged groups' apathy into positive action. They place this research into a novel framework by exploring the ways these emotions shape group processes to produce action strategies that emphasize either social cohesion or social change. These prosocial emotions have a critical but underrecognized role in creating contexts of in-group inclusion or exclusion, shaping normative content and meaning, and informing group interests. Furthermore, these distinctions provide a useful way of differentiating commonly discussed emotions. The authors conclude that the most "effective" emotion will depend on the context of the inequality but that outrage seems particularly likely to productively shape group processes and social change outcomes.

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#10 Reduced Inequalities

Source: InCites

Metrics

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Citation topics
6 Social Sciences
6.73 Social Psychology
6.73.447 Racial Identity
Web Of Science research areas
Psychology, Social
ESI research areas
Psychiatry/Psychology
Logo image