Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2022
DOI
10.1002/ajcp.12587
Publication Title
American Journal of Community Psychology
Volume
70
Issue
1-2
Pages
153-165
Abstract
This cross-sectional survey study examined the underlying psychosocial constructs of Black (n = 163) and White (n = 246) university students' willingness to endorse racially motivated collective action. Consistent with the defensive motivation system model, we expected the police shooting of an unarmed Black American to activate concerns about personal safety, thereby eliciting negative affect, lack of forgiveness of the perpetrator, and motivation to engage in collective action. This path model was expected for both Black and White participants, with stronger associations among Black participants. In the full model, Black participants identified more with the victim and indicated greater personal threat, which led to (1) more negative affect and greater endorsement of collective action and (2) greater avoidance of the shooter and greater endorsement of collective action. In the Black participants model, collective action was explained by identifying with the victim and feeling personally threatened. In the White participants model, collective action was explained by three pathways stemming from identifying with the victim and personal threat, including negative affect, seeking avoidance, and seeking revenge. The results indicate different mechanisms to explain Black and White individuals' motivation to endorse collective action to prevent police-involved shootings of unarmed Black Americans.
Original Publication Citation
Sheehan, B. E., Derlega, V. J., Maduro, R. S., & Totonchi, D. A. (2022). Willingness to engage in collective action after the police killing of an unarmed black man: Differential pathways for black and white individuals. American Journal of Community Psychology, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12587
Repository Citation
Sheehan, Brynn E.; Derlega, Valerian J.; Maduro, Ralitsa S.; and Totonchi, Delaram A., "Willingness to Engage in Collective Action After the Killing of an Unarmed Black Man: Differential Pathways for Black and White Individuals" (2022). Psychology Faculty Publications. 128.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/psychology_fac_pubs/128
Included in
African American Studies Commons, Community Psychology Commons, Multicultural Psychology Commons
Comments
© 2022 The Authors.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.