ABSTRACT

The importance of public support to the success of revolutionary movements is almost universally acknowledged by revolutionary writers and scholarly commentators. To move the individual from alienation to radical and revolutionary behavior, communication must be accepted, must facilitate rather than inhibit behavior. The revolutionary appeal functions as re-socialization to politics or as the activation of predispositions toward revolutionary behavior. The design involved the inducement of alienation in relevant experimental groups, and the generation of an appeal from a revolutionary organization to effect the conversion of alienation to revolutionary support. Experimental groups with and without reinforcement of alienation were needed, as it is theoretically important to determine whether different levels of reinforced alienation operate to determine degrees of revolutionary support. Each of the variables hypothesized to be operative in the development of revolutionary support were selectively induced in documents reporting the hypothetical appeal of a revolutionary organization.