Why Do People Join Social Movements?
Like contagion theory, early micro-level explanations of social movement membership saw participants as less than fully rational. However, more modern approaches disagree, generally interpreting movement participation as the most effective way that relatively powerless people can promote their collective goals. In this section, we will review four major theories of movement participation, beginning with the oldest. Mass Society Theory. Strongly influenced by their abhorrence of the atrocities committed in Europe by supporters of the Nazi movement, theorists in the mass-society school largely discounted the reasons that supporters themselves gave for joining movements which tended to emphasize the importance of the changes they were trying to bring about. Instead, they focused on members personal inadequacies (Hoffer, 1951; Kornhauser, 1959; Feuer, 1969). Participants were depicted as frustrated, socially isolated individuals in modern mass societies who felt insignificant and powerless
