Threat Perception and Perspective Taking as Mediators Between Competitive Victimhood and Evaluations of Collective Action: The Gezi Park Protests

Demirdag A., HASTA D.

POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, cilt.40, sa.5, ss.953-971, 2019 (SSCI) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 40 Sayı: 5
  • Basım Tarihi: 2019
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1111/pops.12564
  • Dergi Adı: POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.953-971
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: collective action, competitive victimhood, Gezi Park protests, perspective taking, realistic threat, symbolic threat, MODERATING ROLE, STIGMATIZED GROUP, NORTHERN-IRELAND, PREJUDICE, ATTITUDES, INTERGROUP, EMPATHY, RECONCILIATION, ANTECEDENTS, FORGIVENESS
  • Ankara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The 2013 Gezi Park protests in Turkey, which are one of the major social movements in the last decade, have sharpened the sociopolitical polarization in the country. The present study employed a moderated mediation model in which symbolic threat, realistic threat, and perspective taking were examined as mediators between competitive victimhood and opposing groups' differential evaluations of the protests. Further, the pro-Gezi versus the anti-Gezi group membership was hypothesized to moderate the mediation effects. Proponents (N = 337) and opponents (N = 138) of the protests were asked to respond to the measures corresponding to the variables in the model. Results revealed that for protest supporters, competitive victimhood predicted evaluations of the protests through realistic threat, but not through symbolic threat; in contrast, for opponents, it predicted evaluations of the protests through symbolic but not realistic threat. Further, perspective taking turned out to be a weak mediator. The results are discussed in terms of the differential power relationships between the groups in the cultural and political domains.