Summary of Results: Peace Activism: Sustained versus Declining Activist Identification and Behaviour

1. People who responded to the study remained committed to being an activist over the 3 months, but their actual participation in peace activism declined from April to May and from May to June. 2. Activism was associated with (a) egalitarian values, (b) membership in organized peace groups, (c) a focus on the successes and effectiveness of the peace movement, and (d) affiliation with political parties that strongly opposed the war. Activism was also linked however to (e) conflict with the Australian identity and (f) war-related stress in April. 3. Engaging in specific actions was associated with (a) perceived support from peers for the behaviours, (b) perceived control over the action, (c) cost-benefit perceptions, (d) attitudes towards the behaviour, and (e) intentions. These 'rational' motives were especially important for people who didn't identify strongly as activists. 4. We were interested in variables that would predict changes in activist identification and behaviour in May and June, controlling for respondents' activism in April. We found that (a) engaging in more collective action strengthened activist identity among weakly identified respondents. More generally, (b) the anticipation of a long war and (c) the perception of high Iraqi casualties were associated with more sustained identification and action. By contrast, (d) conflict with the Australian identity weakened respondents' activism and (e) self-reports that time pressure and financial concerns were barriers to action were associated with decreasing identification. 5. There's lots in the data to look at, but the findings we would see as more novel and good targets for intervention concern the relative importance of information about Iraqi casualties and ongoing fighting (subjects of potential information campaigns, especially since Iraqi casualty figures dont always make the news) and the importance of managing tensions between peace activist and other group identities (the particular importance of stressing the peacenik Aussie link).