Antinuclear and Pronuclear Empowerment and Activism

Abstract

This study tested the proposition that university undergraduates would have higher empowerment scores with regard to advocating for antinuclear rather than pronuclear weapons issues. In addition, empowerment would be a determining factor of antinuclear but not of pronuclear activism among these students. Two components of empowerment were assessed in a decision-making task, namely, intentions to deal with the problems of nuclear weapons and confidence in those decisions. The intentions to deal with nuclear weapons issues were assessed by the students' endorsements of coping actions to deal with problem situations presented on a computer. Perceived empowerment was measured by their self-rated confidence in the correctness of the decisions. Concerns or worries about nuclear issues were measured by the frequency of self-reported antinuclear and pronuclear thoughts. The students' previous activities related to antinuclear and pronuclear advocacy were also measured with a questionnaire. The major findings were that antinuclear concerns, intentions to engage in antinuclear coping actions, and confidence in the decisions all contributed to the determination of antinuclear activism. In contrast, only pronuclear concerns determined pronuclear activism. It was concluded that empowerment is situationally determined or limited to specific issues in any particular group. The findings were discussed with reference to increasing the activism of citizens through public policies that are sensitive to the circumstances of particular groups and provide organized support for the development of empowerment on specific peace issues.