When groups in glass houses throw stones: Public expectations of how activist groups respond to identity threats

•The study offers a theoretical development of the threat appraisal model and contingency theory.•Findings suggest potentially negative effects of an identity crisis on activist organizations.•Angry activist groups are expected to have more negative and intense feelings toward a crisis.•An interaction effect was found between anger and efficacy on affective valence and arousal.

This experimental study explores how the general public views an activist organization's affective threat appraisal as a function of three factors: the organization's anger level, efficacy level, and consistency of ascribed identity with avowed identity. Results shed light on the affective threat appraisal that activist organizations might use to manage emerging conflict with the general public. A typology of activist organizations is offered to account for levels of anger and likely efficacy when organizations face perceived disconnects between avowed identity and the identity ascribed to the activist group as a result of reported behavior. Empirical evidence suggests that an identity crisis involving identity discrepancies of an activist organization can have a profoundly negative impact on the organization's image, reputation, and even survival.