2566 - MORAL FOUNDATIONS AND AGENTING AS PREDICTORS OF YOUTH HYBRID ACTIVISM IN GEORGIA'S POLITICAL CRISIS

Session: D11S005 - Democracy & Trust 3
AUTHORS:
Tsiklauri Ketevan (Tbilisi State University ~ Tbilisi ~ Georgia) , Mestvirishvili Maia (Tbilisi State University ~ Tbilisi ~ Georgia)
Abstract text:
Ongoing political turmoil in Georgia has intensified civic mobilization, particularly among young citizens opposing pro-Russian policies. Since late November, more than 100,000 demonstrators have gathered in Tbilisi to protest the government's suspension of European Union accession negotiations and its rejection of EU funding until 2028. Against this backdrop, the present study explores psychological mechanisms that may underlie youth political engagement. Specifically, it examines how positive and negative agenting, together with core moral foundations, predict hybrid activism. A total of 198 young adults (18-30 years; 67% female) completed measures of hybrid activism, agenting dimensions, and moral foundations (harm, fairness, ingroup, authority, and purity). Regression analyses indicated that fairness was a positive predictor of hybrid activism, whereas authority predicted it negatively. Moreover, harm and fairness moderated the relationship between positive agenting and hybrid activism, amplifying its effects on political participation. These findings advance understanding of how agentic orientations and moral intuitions jointly foster political activism in times of societal crisis, offering insight into the motivational architecture of youth resistance in fragile democracies.