Reaching consensus promotes the internalization of commitment to social change

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this record.Solving the world’s most pressing problems (climate change, global poverty) will require the commitment of large numbers of people. The current research draws upon the joint insights of self-determination theory and the social identity perspective to consider the mechanisms through which social interaction engenders commitment to social change. Participants (N = 137) engaged in a small-group discussion to plan strategies for providing safe drinking water to people in developing countries. The degree of consensus within the interaction (regarding desired change and action to achieve that change) was measured. Multi-level path analysis showed that communication of consensus allows motives to become internalized, giving rise to new identities and commitment to social change. These results suggest that to understand how to promote commitment to social change, we need to understand the social forces that promote the formation and internalization of meaningful social identities.This research was supported by the Spencer Foundation’s New Civic Initiative (201200123) and an Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE120101029) to the first author