The role of passion in mainstream and radical behaviors: A look at environmental activism

The dualistic model of passion proposes that individuals can have two distinct types of passion toward an activity, a harmonious passion (HP) or an obsessive passion (OP), that lead to more or less adaptive outcomes, respectively. The purpose of the present research was to investigate the differential role of passion toward the environmental cause in mainstream and radical activist behaviors. Three studies were conducted with participants actively engaged in the environmental cause. In Study 1 (n = 106), path analysis results revealed that both HP and OP were associated with the endorsement of mainstream behaviors whereas only OP was related to the endorsement of radical behaviors. Study 2 (n = 123) replicated this pattern of results by looking at the extent to which participants were willing to engage in mainstream and radical behaviors in a hypothetical scenario depicting a real-life situation. Finally, path analysis results in Study 3 (n = 169) underscored the mediating role of emotions in the relationship between passion and activist behaviors. Overall, the present findings highlight the importance of distinguishing HP from OP for an important cause such as that of the environment.