"Not everyone can be an activist"

[Diane Monaco]

At 01:15 PM 2/20/2003 -0500, Wojtek wrote:
>Research suggest that what makes an activist is not conviction or
>personality, but social connections.  People get drawn to action by
>their friends, spouses, syblings, or co-workers, but then they
>rationalize their participation in terms of their adherence to the
>action's ideology.  Ideology or personality alone seldom acts as
>sufficient motivator (ditto for most kinds of volunteering).
>
>And that makes perfect sense.

It does make perfect sense.  Can you post some references for us if possible?


>   The behavioral model that seems to have
>most validity is not utility maximization, but transaction cost
>minimization.

But aren't you sort of throwing away the social connection part, as above, 
when you focus on "minimizing costs"?  Sure, there are costs in all that we 
do, but when it comes to social connections, I'm not so convinced that 
"costs" are the first considerations that come to mind.  Of course, both 
models are inadequate, but it may be more appropriate to view social 
connections as something that affects "utility" (well-being, 
happiness)...for modelling purposes that is.

Diane