Collective action among the extremes? Relations between political ideology, political extremism, emotions, and collective action

Abstract Past research has highlighted the central role of ideology and political values in collective action. This research aims to determine whether, in addition to political ideology , political extremism can promote collective action. Arguing that political extremism may promote political activism per se, independently of its ideological content, we hypothesized an asymmetric U‐shaped relationship between political ideology and collective action, with emotions (anger, fear, and hope) acting as mediators. We conducted two studies in the context of two real‐world social movements in France. Study 1 ( N = 1386) examined collective action against COVID‐19 restrictions, a movement that defended typical right‐wing values. Study 2 ( N = 418) examined collective action against pension reform, a movement that defended values typical of the left. In both studies, we found that the congruent political ideology (right‐wing in Study 1 and left‐wing in Study 2) and political extremism were both associated with greater intentions (Studies 1 and 2) and greater participation (Study 2) in collective action. Anger partially mediated the relationship between political extremism and collective action in both studies. Overall, our results call for considering political extremism in addition to the left/right dimension of political ideology in order to better understand engagement in collective action.