Social identities facilitate and encapsulate action-relevant constructs: A test of the social identity model of collective action

Abstract

Three studies explore the recently elaborated social identity model of collective action (SIMCA) and an alternative, the encapsulated model of social identity in collective action (EMSICA). These models both afford a central role to the function of social identities in promoting collective action, through affective reactions to injustice and group efficacy, but in different ways. Combined analyses of three samples (N = 305) using multigroup structural equation modelling showed that both SIMCA and EMSICA fit the data well but that the path from group efficacy to action was of small size. Results showed that social identity processes can both facilitate and encapsulate other action-relevant constructs, and highlight the importance of considering multiple causal pathways to action.