Fighting for what’s fair: Distinguishing specific legitimacy appraisals and their role in different collective action responses to economic inequality

Economic inequality significantly influences people’s thoughts and actions regarding wealth gaps. Global trends show an increase in collective action tendencies, such as protesting or signing petitions for ingroups. Our research explores collective action goals among middle-status group members responding to economic inequality. Drawing on social identity theory, we hypothesised that heightened inequality leads to increased collective action intentions. Experiment 1 ( N = 74) establishes a causal link between economic inequality and intentions for middle-status group members both to reduce inequality and enhance ingroup status. In a preregistered second experiment ( N = 432), we investigated legitimacy appraisals and intergroup comparison direction as explanatory variables. Legitimacy of ingroup status and societal inequality mediated the impact of economic inequality on distinct collective action goals. Upward intergroup comparison heightened intentions to improve ingroup status, but not to reduce inequality. These findings contribute to understanding the consequences of economic inequality and drivers of collective action.