Individual Stories, Emotion, and Mobilization against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence

• In Event: 4360 - Mobilizing for and Against Violence in Pursuit of Social Justice

Abstract

The dramatic emergence of the #MeToo movement raises important questions regarding social movement messaging and emotions. We use experimental methods to explore the extent to which personal statements by survivors and their loved ones, and the emotions these statements inspire, help mobilize people for action in the movement to end sexual assault and domestic violence. We explore whether brief personal stories and statements can change people's willingness to engage in activism, and whether they are more effective than information and statistics. We also consider whether the power of personal stories lies in their ability to generate emotions. We explore these questions using a unique experiment conducted using personal statements from the Clothesline Project, an anti-sexual and gender violence program conducted yearly on many colleges campuses. We use a powerful randomized pre-test/post-test experimental design. Results suggest that the personal statements are effective at generating an increased interest in participating in protest, though not more effective than data on sexual assault and domestic violence. We find that the influence of personal stories does operate through their ability to elicit emotion. This study contributes to a growing literature on the power of personal statements, narratives, and emotion at mobilizing people for collective action.

Authors

• Nella Van Dyke, University of California, Merced

• Kathryn Patricia Daniels, University of California, Merced

• Ashley Noel Metzger, University of California, Merced

• Carolina Molina, University of California, Merced