Arab Muslims' negative meta-perceptions and non-normative collective action

Abstract

What triggers people to engage in violent collective action has become a major question for everyone living in this day and age, and that social sciences, and social psychology in particular, have been seeking to address. Aimed to help in answering this question, this study investigated whether negative meta-perceptions trigger non-normative violent actions among Arab Muslims. Specifically, we examined if (1) Arab Muslims’ negative meta-perceptions of what Westerners think of them increase their support for violent collective, non-normative action, as well as for normative collective action and (2) if these effects will be stronger for those who endorse extreme forms of identification (i.e., identity fusion and collective narcissism). Participants from Lebanon, Algeria, and Tunisia (N = 174) were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions (control versus negative meta-perceptions). Contrary to expectations, there was no significant effect of negative meta-perceptions on normative or non-normative collective action, and also no significant interactions with collective narcissism and identity fusion. Hence, the manipulation was not effective, and the results of the study are not consistent with previous findings, which we will discuss. However, significant results showing an intriguing negative relation between negative meta-perceptions and non-normative collective action will be also discussed.