Committed dis(s)idents: Participation in radical collective action fosters disidentification with the broader in-group but enhances political identification

The present research examined the hypothesis that participation in radical,but not moderate,action results in disidentification from the broader in-group. study 1 (n = 98) was a longitudinal study conducted in the context of student protests against tuition fees in germany and confirmed that participation in radical collective action results in disidentification with the broader in-group (students) whereas participation in moderate collective action does not. both types of action increased politicized identification. study 2 (n = 175) manipulated the normativeness of different types of imagined collective actions in the same context and replicated this disidentification effect for radical actions,but only when this action mismatched the broader in-group's norms. this study also indicated that these effects were partially mediated by perceived lack of solidarity and perceived lack of commitment to the cause among the broader in-group. the implications of these findings for understanding radicalization within social movements are discussed. © 2011 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.