Having a vision and being able to imagine socially and ecologically just alternatives can motivate people for societal transformation. However, which psychological processes drive this link between the mental accessibility of societal alternatives and collective action? We hypothesized that collective efficacy beliefs and politicized identification form two pathways mediating the effects of cognitive alternatives on high‐cost activist behaviour. Two studies and a pooled analysis tested these hypotheses longitudinally. Data were collected in two field settings: a climate camp and an online conference on socio‐ecological visions. In line with our assumptions, and across three of the four analysed timeframes, latent change score modelling showed that changes in cognitive alternatives predicted changes in collective efficacy beliefs and social movement identification, which in turn, predicted changes in collective action intentions. We found clear evidence for our hypotheses in the short term and mixed evidence in the long term. Additional analyses including participative efficacy showed no relevant effects. We concluded that the ability to envision social change may foster a sense of agency as members of social movements. These processes linking imagination to activism are less about individual efficacy than about realizing the collective possibilities for change and identifying with the groups enacting it.

中文翻译：

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从想象到行动主义：认知替代方案通过对社会运动和集体效能的认同来激发对行动主义的承诺


拥有愿景并能够想象社会和生态公正的替代方案可以激励人们进行社会转型。然而，哪些心理过程推动了社会替代方案的心理可及性和集体行动之间的这种联系？我们假设集体效能信念和政治化认同构成了调节认知替代方案对高成本激进主义行为影响的两条途径。两项研究和一项汇总分析纵向检验了这些假设。数据是在两个实地环境中收集的：气候营和关于社会生态愿景的在线会议。与我们的假设一致，在四个分析的时间框架中的三个时间框架中，潜在变化评分模型表明，认知选择的变化预测了集体效能信念和社会运动识别的变化，这反过来又预测了集体行动意图的变化。我们在短期内为我们的假设找到了明确的证据，在长期内发现了混合的证据。包括参与性效能的其他分析显示没有相关影响。我们得出的结论是，设想社会变革的能力可能会培养作为社会运动成员的能动性。这些将想象力与行动主义联系起来的过程与其说是关于个人效能，不如说是关于实现变革的集体可能性并认同实施变革的群体。