Protecting the Earth Radically: Perceiving police injustice activates climate protesters’ need for significance

Based on significance-quest theory and research on procedural justice, we propose that climate protesters’ support for ecotage (i.e., the tactic of property damage to prevent environmental harm), is affected by their need for significance and perceived police injustice. To test this assumption, we surveyed climate protesters in the United States (Study 1, N = 253) and the Netherlands (Study 2, N = 333). In these studies, we manipulated whether participants were reminded about experiences of unfair police treatment. We measured protesters’ support for climate actions involving property damage, such as arson, slashing SUV tires, and sabotaging pipelines. Both studies showed that need for significance was positively related to support for ecotage when protesters were exposed to police injustice, but not in daily life situations, providing evidence for the situational activation of significance quest. Furthermore, we found that the more protesters perceived unfair police treatment, the more they experienced feelings of personal humiliation and disrespect, which was related to greater support for damaging climate actions. • Climate protesters in the United States and the Netherlands strived for significance. • Need for significance related to support for ecotage (property damage) under conditions of police injustice. • More police injustice related to greater significance loss, linking to increased support for damaging actions.