People engage in protest activity partly because of selective incentives (Olson, 1965). We focus on such incentives related to the groups an individual is, or aspire to become, part of, and introduce the role of rejection. Humans’ fundamental need to belong make them sensitive to rejection (Williams, 2007), increasing compliance, especially among highly rejection sensitive individuals (Romero-Canyas et al., 2010). In three experiments, we investigate the effect of rejection on participation in protests, also considering social support, and rejection sensitivity. Results indicate that 1) rejection increases willingness to participate in protests especially among highly rejection sensitive individuals and 2) these individuals need to feel that they have high social support in order to participate (societal or ingroup support). We argue that these results are relevant when considering extreme groups, where attitude discrepancy to the surrounding society may result in feelings of rejection, increasing collective action in highly cohesive extreme Groups.
