The educational gap of anger-based political activism in Norway

This paper examines the relationship between societal anger and political activism in Norway, utilizing regression-based statistical analyses of data from the Norwegian national election survey 2017. The article tests two complementary hypotheses. First, there is an assumed statistical relationship between anger and political activism. Second, this relationship is expected to vary between social groups, due to the different use of activism as a marker of social identity. According to cognitive appraisals theory, anger is a functional reaction to perceived injustice, which mobilizes specific patterns of political action. Anger triggers active and confronting participation such as political activism. In contrast, social identity theory perceives activism predominantly as a marker of group alleviation. Participation in demonstrations strengthens the sense of belonging, even for participants who are not emotionally engaged. The analyses indicate that anger mobilizes Norwegian citizens to participate in political activism. However, this effect varies significantly between social groups, particularly regarding the level of education. Low educated citizens are angrier but participate less in political activism compared with more highly educated citizens. At the same time, anger seems to be a more important factor for low-educated citizens engaged in activist forms of participation. These findings identifies two distinct motivations behind political activism. Among citizens with low educational levels, activism is notably utilized as an expression of societal anger. For citizens with higher education, activism instead serves to highlight their social identity, without them necessarily being motivated by political emotions.