Activist Theatre: The Effects of Community Performance on system Justification and Willingness to Engage in Activisim

Vogel, Autumn; Eckstein Jackson, Lydia

doi:10.1002/casp.2277

Activist Theatre: The Effects of Community Performance on system Justification and Willingness to Engage in Activisim

Author(s)

Vogel, Autumn

Eckstein Jackson, Lydia

Date Issued

July 7, 2016

Abstract

System justification is a motivation to legitimize the status quo that disables individuals from changing oppressive social systems. Community performance has long been used as a tool to illuminate and challenge such systems of power. The goal of the present study was to provide an empirical test of the effectiveness of community performance in the context of gender-based oppression. Specifically, the present study tested whether a community performance could decrease audience members’ system justification and increase intentions to engage in collective and virtual action to correct these oppressive systems. The performance consisted of 18 community-created pieces performed by 11 actresses before an audience of 165 members of the college and local communities across three days. A total of 153 audience members participated in the study. Results indicated that a 50-min performance reduced system justification while increasing willingness to take collective and virtual-based action. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Journal

Journal of Community& Applied Social Psychology

Department

Psychology

Citation

Vogel, A.M. and Jackson, L.E. (2016). Activist theatre: The effects of community performance on system justification and willingness to engage in activism. J.Community Appl. Soc. Psychol., 26(5): 456-462. doi:10.1002/casp.2277

Publisher

Wiley

Version of Article

Published article

Final manuscript post peer review, without publisher's formatting or copy editing (postprint)

Embargo

This version of the article is available for view to the public after July 7,2017.

DOI

10.1002/casp.2277

ISSN

1099-1298

Rights

Subjects

system justification

collective action

community performance...

art activism

virtual action

File(s)

Name

Jackson_2016_JCASP_ActivistTheatre.pdf

Description

Main Document

Size

152.44 KB

Format

Adobe PDF

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