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Q. Why did you decide that this topic was something you wanted to study?

A. My research focuses on why people are so resistant to social change. People are willing to say they support gender equality policies or environmental initiatives, but they don’t want to label themselves as feminists or environmentalists.

Q. Is it possible that one of the reasons people have negative views of activists is because they just don’t support the movements those activists represent?

A. No, because there is lots of research showing that people do have favourable attitudes toward gender equality, for example. But they don’t actually want to label themselves as activists.

Q. Do you think some of the messages of feminists and environmentalists might carry more weight in the mainstream if they were coming from people who seemed a little bit more mainstream?

A. Yeah, the fact that these people have blatantly negative views of activists may actually be hindering the message. People don’t want to be seen as environmentalists or feminist, so they don’t engage in behaviours or adopt the opinions that are characteristic of these people. They don’t want other people to view them in the same negative way. When the message comes from someone who isn’t conforming to these stereotypes, then people are more receptive of the message.

Q. So feminists, for example, who wore moderate, feminine style clothing and came across as softer and more stereotypically feminine might ironically have better luck at getting their message across?