Expressive suppression as an obstacle to social change: Linking system justification, emotion regulation, and collective action

Abstract

Research on system justification theory suggests that justifying the societal status quo decreases negative emotions, leading to less collective action. In this investigation, we propose that the degree to which negative emotions mediate the link between system justification and collective action may depend upon whether individuals tend to suppress the expression of their negative emotions. We tested this hypothesis in the diverse socio-political contexts of Turkey, Israel, and the U.S. In one correlational study (Study 1) and three experimental studies (Studies 2–4), we observed that the link between system justification and willingness to participate in collective action through anger (Studies 1–2 and 4) and guilt (Study 3) was moderated by expressive suppression. We found that negative emotions mediated the association between system justification and collective action among those who suppress the expression of their emotions less frequently, but not those who use expressive suppression more frequently. These findings suggest that emotion regulation may undermine, rather than facilitate, efforts to engage in collective action even among people who are low in system justification. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11031-021-09883-5.

System‐based emotions in Turkey and support for versus opposition to the Gezi Park protests

“…Given the extent of inequality in the world, one might be surprised by the relative rarity of protests, even among those who recognize injustice in society (Jost et al, 2017;Sengupta et al, 2017;Solak et al, 2021). Identifying social psychological and other factors that increase or decrease the likelihood of protest participation-especially under circumstances of political repression-is crucial for understanding and overcoming resistance to social change.…”

“…A number of studies-again, conducted in Western, democratic countries-have found that the endorsement of system-justifying belief systems is associated with increased positive affect and decreased negative affect, including anger and moral outrage directed at the social system (e.g., Chapleau & Oswald, 2014;Jost et al, 2008;Harding & Sibley, 2013;Napier et al, 2020;Osborne et al, 2019;Rankin et al, 2009;Sengupta et al, 2017;Solak et al, 2021;Suppes et al, 2019;Wakslak et al, 2007). For example, Goudarzi et al (2020) observed that individuals in the United States who scored higher on a measure of economic system justification reported lower levels of negative affect and exhibited less physiological arousal associated with emotional distress while watching a video about homelessness, compared to individuals who were lower in economic system justification.…”

Collective Action in Turkey: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go Next?

“…First, the majority of social psychological research conducted in the last ten years on collective action has mostly focused on the Gezi Park protests (e.g., Leach et al, 2016;Stewart et al, 2019;Uysal & Akfırat, 2021a). Only a few studies have been conducted on protests against sexism (e.g., Fischer et al, 2017;Uluğ, Odağ, & Solak, 2020), protests related to women's issues (Okuyan & Curtin, 2018), protests related to LGBTQ+ rights (Uysal et al, COLLECTIVE ACTION AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN TURKEY 7 2021), protests supporting religious groups' rights (e.g., Acar et al, 2021;Bükün, 2014), protests for improving the current conditions of one's ethnic group and for ethnic justice Bagci & Turnuklu, 2019;Tropp et al, 2021) and protests favouring freedom of expression (Solak et al, 2021).…”

“…Examples of direct and indirect effects of anger on collective action can be found in several works carried out in Turkey (e.g., Akkuş et al, 2020;Ayanian et al, 2021;Aytaç et al, 2018;Bükün, 2021;Stewart et al, 2019). However, in a more recent work, Solak et al (2021) have demonstrated that the way individuals regulate their emotions shaped individuals' responses regarding commitment to protest behavior. Specifically, they found that system-based anger (e.g., anger regarding how things work in Turkey's system) mediated the association between system justification and collective action in those who suppress the expression of their emotions less frequently, but not in those who use expressive suppression more frequently in Turkey (see Studies 1 and 2).…”

The Study of Affective Processes in Political Contexts: Accomplishments and Challenges

“…The work by Anna Stefaniak and colleagues demonstrates another important trend in the study of affect in socio-political systems, namely the transition from a strictly descriptive approach to a more interventionist one (Ford et al, 2018 ; Halperin et al, 2013 ; Halperin, Pliskin et al, 2014 ; Solak et al, 2021 ). Relying mainly on the building blocks of research on emotion regulation (Gross, 2013 ), in recent years scholars have started to study the way emotional change can lead to improvement in politics in general and intergroup relations more specifically.…”