Misperceptions in Protest Affect and Action Among Resident and Diaspora Activists: Online Versus On-the-Ground in the 2009–2012 Iranian Post-Election Protests

Abstract

Although collective action is typically led by local actors, remote participation by diaspora members has become common with the rise of social media and digital connectivity. However, differences in modes of participation may lead residents and diaspora activists to represent protests differently or to misperceive each other’s experiences. Such gaps may be reflected in how protests feel and how protest actions are interpreted. This study examined these dynamics in the context of Iran’s 2009–2012 post-election protests. A sample of N = 1,254 respondents residing inside or outside Iran completed tasks assessing their own protest representations or predicting the other group’s experiences. Although the two groups responded similarly from their own perspectives, diaspora members predicted residents’ experiences as significantly less positive, while residents underestimated diaspora members’ action identification, perceiving them as lower-level actors focused more on the mechanics of protest (“how”) than on overarching purposes (“why”). Greater activism was associated with more positive and less negative affect in protest representations. Protest attendance and online information sharing were associated with less biased predictions of affective experiences and action construals. The findings highlight the mutual misperceptions between local and remote participants that can hinder transnational collective action even in the absence of actual differences in protest representations.