What Is, What Was and What Could Be: Simultaneously Comparing How Emotional Reactions to the Past, Present and Future Predict Collective Action

Although separate research programs examine how emotional reactions to the past, present and future predict collective action, research has yet to compare them simultaneously. Across three studies (N = 2764) and two social issues (plastic pollution and abortion), we examined whether reflecting on a positive or negative past, present or future elicits distinct emotions which indirectly predict collective action. Results revealed multiple countervailing indirect effects. For supporters of progressive causes, positive futures indirectly predicted higher action via increased hope, whereas negative futures indirectly predicted lower action via decreased hope. Positively valenced events also indirectly predicted lower action by decreasing anger and fear, regardless of time-referent. Conversely, negatively valenced events were more influential for proponents of conservative causes and indirectly predicted action via diverse emotions. We discuss the potential for, and limitations of, temporal comparisons to influence emotions implicated in collective action, and how the salience of these frames varies by context.