For nearly every American, the chants and sights of protest have come knocking. Maybe you’ve stood with a bullhorn in hand (literally or digitally) in recent days. Perhaps you’ve hit the streets, marching and shouting, homemade sign held high. Or you’ve watched the parade of protesters from your car window or at home — and voiced your take with friends and old high school classmates on Facebook.
Virtually nobody has escaped the headlines, viral videos and social media outrage related to racism and police brutality in the past two weeks. It’s flooding our screens and psyches. And that’s the point, according to social psychologists studying collective action. Their research illuminates some of the complex reactions and judgments firing in our brains during the heat of these conflicts.
“The goal of a protest is to disrupt business as usual,” says Hema Preya Selvanathan, a postdoctoral research fellow with the school of ...
