Reply To: Extinction Rebellion
“Marches serve two functions: to encourage people to join a movement and to enact change,” lead author Janet Swim said in a statement. “This study is consistent with the idea that people who participate in marches can gain public support, convince people that change can occur, and also normalize the participants themselves.”
Although researchers found that some participants had expressed negative views of protesters in general before the marches, after the People’s Climate March they were less likely to view marchers as “arrogant or eccentric or otherwise outside of the norm,” Swim reported. Observers who said they consumed news via conservative sources had more “collective efficacy beliefs” after the marches, meaning they were more likely to believe that collective action could be effective and to have plans to participate in protests themselves.
Meanwhile, the police exert their power to prosecute protesters