Symposium at the 20th Congress of the Polish Social Psychological Society
During the recent symposium devoted to the dimensions of how politically engaged individuals, actions, and political issues are perceived, participants of the 20th Congress of the Polish Social Psychological Association had the opportunity to listen to three presentations by members of our lab. Each talk, from a different perspective, shed light on the psychological mechanisms underlying our judgments and socio-political engagement.
Agnieszka Kuhny presented research findings on how people (both politically engaged and not) perceive activists and what they think about how society sees them. In both Poland and the United States, politically engaged individuals evaluated activists more positively and had a more favorable view of their social image than those less involved.
Anna Potoczek examined how people assess historical examples of resistance movements depending on their outcomes. Across different countries, scenarios, and research procedures, participants consistently judged successful resistance actions as more moral, more important, and more pride-worthy than those that ended in failure – showing how strongly outcomes influence our moral judgments of collective action.
Katarzyna Jasko, in turn, analyzed how various forms of collective action are perceived in terms of difficulty, effectiveness, and sense of self-efficacy. Her presentation provided insight into why some forms of activism gain widespread support while others remain rare, and demonstrated how perceived difficulty and effectiveness are linked to decisions about political engagement.
Our discussant was prof. Piotr Winkielman (University of California, San Diego).
Taken together, the presented studies showed how people evaluate activists, actions, and political issues, and how these evaluations translate into their readiness for social involvement. The symposium offered a psychological perspective on the motivational processes that shape our attitudes and choices in the political sphere.
