Social change as an important goal or likely outcome: How regulatory focus affects commitment to collective action

The results of three experiments showed that regulatory focus influences the way inwhich the importance and likelihood of social change affect individuals’ commitment tocollective action. In Studies 1 (N = 82) and 2 (N = 153), the strength of participants’chronic regulatory focus was measured. In Study 3 (N = 52), promotion or preventionfocus was experimentally induced. The results showed that for individuals underpromotion focus, commitment to collective action depended on the perceived likelihoodthat through this action important social change would be achieved. Individuals underprevention focus were willing to commit to collective action when they attached highimportance to its goal, regardless of t he extent to which they believed that attainmentof this goal was likely. Implications of these results for work on regulatory focus andcollective action are discussed.status: publishe