Donald Trump, dominating masculine necropolitics, and COVID-19

This article discusses US president, Donald J. Trump and what the author labels his "dominating masculine necropolitics". Dominating masculinity involves commanding and controlling specific interactions, and exercising power and control over people and events-"calling the shots" and "running the show". Differing from hegemonic masculinities, dominating masculinities do not necessarily legitimate a hierarchical relationship between men and women, masculinity and femininity, and among masculinities. In that sense, then, dominating masculinities are often, but not always, analytically distinct from hegemonic masculinities. Trump's specific form of dominating masculinity involved commanding and controlling specific interactions, and exercising power and control over people and events;he called the shots and ran the show, demanded strict obedience to his authority, and displayed a lack of concern for the opinions of others. Throughout Trump's presidency, this dominating masculinity centered on several critical features, which were emphasized or de-emphasized depending upon the context. The arrival and spread of Covid-19 around the world provided a new and dangerous context within which Trump's dominating masculinity has been increasingly constructed through novel necropolitical practices. Although Trump's medical experts continued to advocate for mitigation in order to minimize the spread of the virus, Trump unwaveringly stayed on message by continually downplaying the danger of the virus. Trump's dominating masculine necropolitics especially involved flouting guidelines for mask wearing. The culprit for the staggering spread of Covid-19 and premature death within the United States is Trump and his dominating masculine necropolitical discourse and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The politics of hate. Infection anxiety and defense

The article approaches the attraction of hate politics via reflections on the dilemmas and resistances that get in the way of its analysis. Sociopsychological investigation of the new political movements that seek communality by way of highly negative affects (such as the protests against measures designed to contain the COVID pandemic) is impeded by the emotional involvement displayed by researchers. Encounters with hostility and hate are invasive in their impact, jeopardize psychic integrity, and spell the demise of curiosity and empathy. Equally threatening is the normative proximity to central topic of these movements: the idealization of criticism, resistance, and autonomy. The regressive temptations held out by hate politics may arouse feelings of envy. Defense operations are undertaken to counteract contamination, involuntary proximity, and envy. These include leaving the field, cathexis withdrawal, and the adoption of the logic of splitting and devaluation. Maneuvers of this kind are also discernible in research on the subject. Keeping one's distance means not learning anything new;letting oneself be drawn in means becoming a part of the very dynamic one is investigating. In research, this leads to a moralizing implementation of defense against anxiety and powerlessness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (French) Le texte evoque l'attrait de la haine en politique et etudie les dilemmes et les resistances qui en compliquent l'analyse. L'etude sociopsychologique des nouveaux mouvements politiques qui forment des communautes par le biais de puissants affects negatifs (comme les protestations contre les mesures visant a endiguer la pandemie de Corona) est rendue difficile par l'implication emotionnelle des chercheurs. La rencontre avec l'hostilite et la haine a un effet invasif, met en danger l'integrite psychique et fait disparaitre la curiosite et la disposition a l'empathie. La proximite normative avec les topoi centraux de ces mouvements-l'idealisation de la critique, de la resistance et de l'autonomie-est egalement menacante. L'offre regressive de la haine peut eveiller des sentiments d'envie. On cherche a contrecarrer la contamination, la proximite non souhaitee et l'envie par des manoeuvres de defense : evitement et retrait de l'investissement, adoption d'une logique de clivage et de devalorisation. La recherche est egalement tentee par de telles manoeuvres. Celui qui prend ses distances n'apprend rien de nouveau. Celui qui se laisse atteindre devient lui-meme partie prenante de la dynamique qu'il veut etudier et sa recherche aboutit a des actions moralisatrices de defense contre l'angoisse et l'impuissance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (German) Der Text nahert sich der Attraktion von Hasspolitik uber eine Reflexion der Dilemmata und Widerstande, die sich ihrer Analyse in den Weg stellen. Die sozialpsychologische Untersuchung der neuen politischen Bewegungen, die sich uber starke negative Affekte vergemeinschaften (wie die Proteste gegen die Masnahmen zur Eindammung der Corona-Pandemie), werden durch die emotionale Beteiligung von Forschern erschwert. Die Begegnung mit Feindseligkeit und Hass wirkt invasiv, gefahrdet die psychische Integritat und lasst Neugier und Empathiebereitschaft schwinden. Bedrohlich wirkt auch die normative Nahe zu zentralen Topoi dieser Bewegungen-der Idealisierung von Kritik, Widerstand und Autonomie. Das regressive Angebot von Hasspolitik kann Gefuhle von Neid wecken. Der Kontamination, der ungewollten Nahe und dem Neid sucht man durch Abwehroperationen gegenzusteuern: Aus-dem-Felde-Gehen und Besetzungsentzug, Ubernahme der Spaltungs- und Entwertungslogik. Zu solchen Manovern ist man auch in der Forschung versucht. Wer sich distanziert, erfahrt nichts Neues. Wer sich erreichen lasst, wird selber Teil der Dynamik, die er untersuchen will, und gerat in seiner Forschung in moralisierendes Agieren der Abwehr von Angst und Ohnmacht. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Teaching controversial issues during a presidential election: Exploring how teachers navigated polarized politics in 2020

American politics today is the culmination of historical, political, social, geographic, and economic events that have significantly impacted this country. Over the last year, America and the world have been tested to political, social, and economic extremes not seen in over a century because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Both the 2020 Presidential election and the storming of the Capitol on January 6th, 2021 are just two of the events that challenged teachers and educators across all levels of schooling to change and adapt teaching practices. It has forced citizens to have difficult conversations about democracy, equality, health, and safety. Educators tasked with teaching government and civics are required to teach political parties and the functions of government. However, in this current socially distant and polarized political climate, doing so was tremendously difficult. For some high school students and teachers, teaching secondary government is only a nine-week crash course into the functions of the government and rights outlined to students. Nine weeks to teach the functions of government, Constitution, rights of citizens, powers of the president, courts, and how federalism and states interact. Furthermore, only a small minority of students who take government courses do so during a presidential election cycle. This reality underscores the importance of understanding how teachers help students navigate such an important function of government. In this polarized political climate post-2016, it is of interest to study how teachers have prepared to teach the election and document their experience navigating campaign issues. This study hopes to shed light on the educational strategies and expectations of secondary government and civics teachers teaching controversial political topics surrounding the 2020 election. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The impossibility of freedom: From psychoanalytical conceptions to political objections

This chapter provides an overview of psychoanalytical conceptions on freedom is provided along with certain political objections. Urukagina's code has been widely hailed as the first recorded specimen of government reform, seeking to achieve a higher level of freedom and equality. The chapter encounters conical shape associated with freedom in Ancient Rome: pileus. Liberty embodies the privileges of independence, freedom, on the other hand, the rights of belonging. To top it all off, in countries with authoritarian regimes, quarantine-like regulations that are dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity for restricting freedom of speech and freedom of peaceful assembly. Ego is neither able to control passion nor the external world in the name of reason or freedom. Through a newly won freedom from the constraints of fantasy, the course of a psychoanalysis should enable the person to approach reality from a different perspective, to pass from the restrictions of an unconscious internal reality to the possibilities offered by whatever may happen. Consistent with his aim, Freud saw freedom as an illusion and redefined it as the recognition of necessity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Designing for safe, fun and informative online cross-partisan interactions

The past decade in the US has been one of the most politically polarizing in recent memory. Increasingly, ordinary Democrats and Republicans fundamentally dislike and distrust each other, even when they agree on policy issues. Most Americans report believing that the opposing party is a "serious threat to the United States and its people". This extreme partisan hostility has wide-ranging consequences, even affecting how partisans respond to COVID-19 mitigation measures. In this context, this dissertation aims to reduce hostile interactions and attitudes towards ordinary Democrats and Republicans. I argue that we can reduce hostility by leveraging nonpolitical online spaces that cut through the partisan faultlines in uniquely engaging ways. I develop approaches to transform the currently hostile, uninspiring nature of online political interactions into not only a safe experience but also a fun and informative one. I take a mixed-methods approach to studying outpartisan hostility, combining computational social science with design methods. The dissertation progresses from a large-scale exploratory analysis of online political discussions to developing potential designs to reduce online partisan hostility and, finally, to designing and evaluating a fun party game that reduces outparty hostility. In the first study, through large-scale computational analysis of billions of Reddit comments, I find that nearly half of all political discussions on Reddit take place in nonpolitical communities and that cross-partisan political conversations in these communities are less toxic than those in explicitly political communities. These findings suggest that shared nonpolitical interests can temper online partisan hostility. In the second study, through in-depth qualitative interviews and design probes, I explore approaches to surface these nonpolitical interests and identities during online political interactions on Reddit. I demonstrate that participants are comfortable knowing and revealing shared memberships in nonpolitical communities with outpartisan discussion partners which they expect to be humanizing, potentially reducing the hostility in those interactions. Through the interviews, I find that apart from serious deliberative discussions, participants also engage in light-hearted and casual political interactions where the motivation to simply entertain themselves and have fun. In the final study, drawing on insights from the prior study and extant political science research, I develop an online party game that combines the relaxed, playful nonpartisan norms of casual games with corrective information about Democrats' and Republicans' political views that are often misperceived. Through an experiment, I find that playing the game significantly reduces hostile attitudes toward outparty supporters among Democrats. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates the potential of using nonpolitical context to facilitate quality online cross-partisan interactions that account for and mitigate the heightened levels of partisan animosity we observe today. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Introduction

This American Behavioral Scientist (ABS) issue provides readers insights into better understanding such political dynamics of elections and campaigns in the United States and Europe. Forthcoming issues will further explore this historic U.S. 2020 election cycle, as well as research highlighting campaigns and elections worldwide, case studies of crisis mis/management, changing modes of strategies and tactics within the political social media context, health as a campaign issue within the Covid 19 epidemic, among other provocative topics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The dual effect of COVID-19 on intergroup conflict in the Korean Peninsula

The coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally shifted the way human beings interact, both as individuals and groups, in the face of such a widespread outbreak. This paper seeks to investigate the effects of COVID-19 on intergroup emotions and attitudes within an intractable intergroup conflict, specifically, through the lens of the Korean conflict. Using a two-wave, cross-sectional design, this study was able to track the profound psychological changes in intergroup emotions and attitudes both prior to the pandemic and during its onslaught. Results of these two wave representative samples show that South Korean citizens demonstrated higher levels of fear of their neighbors in North Korea after the outbreak of COVID-19 than before. In turn, this led to increased societal support of hostile government policies towards North Koreans. Conversely, the same participants exhibited higher levels of empathy towards North Koreans during the pandemic, which led to a higher willingness to collaborate with their outgroup. This dual effect on intergroup emotions within intractable conflicts brings forth new avenues from which societies may be able to restrain the destructive influence of the COVID-19 threat on intergroup relations-as well as harvesting its constructive potential for reconciling warring intergroup relations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Fake news mediate the relationship between sociopolitical factors and vaccination intent in Brazil

Vaccination hesitancy has become a central concern and is a barrier to overcoming the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis. Studies have indicated that mis/disinformation plays a role on the attitudes and behaviours towards vaccination. However, further formal statistical models are required to investigate how fake news relates to vaccination intent and how they mediate the relationship between socioeconomic/political factors and vaccination intent. We studied a sample of 500 Brazilians and found that people were mostly not susceptible to vaccine mis/disinformation. In addition, we found that their vaccination intent was high. However, suspicions that fake news could be true raised doubts over the vaccination intention. Although age and political orientation directly influenced vaccination intent, we found that the relationship between socioeconomic/political factors and vaccination intent was strongly mediated by belief in fake news. Our results raise the need to create multiple strategies to combat the dissemination and acceptance of such content. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

How political identity influences COVID-19 risk perception: A model of identity-based risk perception

Past research suggests that conservatives are usually more threat-sensitive than liberals are. Yet during the COVID-19 pandemic, conservatives consistently underestimated the risk from the virus. To reconcile this paradox, we introduce a model of identity-based risk perception (IRP). This model posits that risk perceptions depend not only on objective risk but also on people's political identity and whether the risk pertains to their group identity (group risk) versus individual identity (individual risk). When asked about the group risk posed by a threat ("How many Americans will die of COVID-19?"), conservatives focus on their national pride and underestimate the risk of contracting the virus compared to liberals. However, when asked about individual risk from the same threat ("What is the probability of an individual dying of COVID-19?"), conservatives focus on individual mortality threat and overestimate the risk of succumbing to the virus compared to liberals. Three national surveys support the IRP model. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Politics, promotions, and pandemics: Political ideologies shape consumers' responses to framed versus unframed brand logos and COVID-19 recommendations

This research examines how exposing conservative (vs. liberal) consumers to a framed logo improves their evaluation of the promoted brand relative to seeing an unframed version of that logo. A core effect reveals that framed, but not unframed, logos generally elicit more favorable product purchase intentions as conservativism increases. Such an effect is theorized to occur because framed stimuli are symbolically aligned with a need for structure that is typically associated with conservatism. Consistent with this possibility, liberals who are primed to think about structure exhibit responses similar to those made by conservatives (i.e., more favorable evaluations of framed logos). The effect observed among conservatives is eliminated, however, when frames are viewed as restrictions on freedom. The implications of these findings are also extended to examine whether framing messages that endorse governmental recommendations to adopt COVID-curbing behavior influences how conservatives respond to these advocacies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

A partisan pandemic: How COVID-19 was primed for polarization

Americans who affiliate with both major political parties rapidly formed diverging attitudes about the COVID-19 pandemic. Matters of scientific concern have elicited partisan reactions in the past, but partisan divergence of opinion on those issues occurred over decades rather than months. We review evidence on factors that led to polarization of previous scientific issues in an effort to explain why reactions diverged so quickly this time around. We then use publicly available survey data to reveal that partisan reactions to the pandemic were closely associated with trust in public health institutions, that the association between partisanship and trust increased over time, and that the conflation of trust and partisanship appears to largely explain polarized reactions to COVID-19. We also investigate the hypothesis that conservative media use might explain polarization but find that the hypothesis is not supported by our data. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, and political attitudes toward governmental performance during the COVID-19 pandemic

This research examined the association of social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) with the evaluations of the government's anti-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) policies and performance. In Study 1 (N = 261), we found that SDO and RWA were positively associated with resistance to criticism about the government's anti-COVID-19 measures. In addition, SDO was positively associated with favorable evaluations of the government's performance in handling the crisis. Support for lockdown policies mediated these attitudes. In Study 2 (N = 438), the results show that SDO and RWA had indirect associations with beliefs in the superiority of China's political system through three mediation variables. Evaluations of the US government's performance in handling the COVID-19 pandemic were negatively associated with beliefs in the superiority of China's political system, and there was a negative relationship between evaluations of the Chinese and US governments' performances. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Examining the correlates of electoral violence in the U.S. using a mixed methods approach: The case of the January 6th, 2021, capitol insurrection

Political conflict is not a new phenomenon. Most political conflict is theoretical and nonviolent;however, when political violence does occur, the consequences can be detrimental to democracies. Recently, in the U.S., political violence in the form of extremism is predominantly rooted in far-right ideologies, such as racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism (REMVE) and anti-government anti-authority violent extremism (AGAAVE). In the last few years, the frequency and intensity of violence perpetrated by groups and individuals who hold these extreme ideologies have increased. The threat of one of the most consequential types of political violence, electoral violence, became real on January 6th, 2021. On the morning of January 6th, then-President Trump held the so-called "Save America" rally, near the U.S. Capitol, and circulated the false notion that the 2020 election was fraudulent. When it was over, and out of approximately 30,000 individuals who attended the rally and exercised their constitutional rights, a group of approximately 1,000 individuals headed to the U.S. Capitol. There, the group of insurrectionists stormed the building, aiming to stop the certification of the 2020 Presidential election. A year and a half later, hundreds of individuals have been charged with violent and nonviolent crimes for their participation in the attack. Of the individuals who chose to storm the U.S. Capitol, why did some commit electoral violence while others did not? The current study aims to better understand the correlates of electoral violence in the January 6th Capitol attack. Using a sample of n = 818 violent and nonviolent insurrectionists charged for their participation in the insurrection, several theoretically relevant correlates (i.e., psychological factors, structural factors, racial animosity, religious affiliation, conspiracy theories, extremist ideologies and ties to extremist groups, the role of the Internet and social media, criminal record, grievances about the COVID-19 pandemic measures, and political rhetoric) were examined using a mixed methods approach. The quantitative results suggested that criminal record and Internet use were significant predictors of engaging in electoral violence. The qualitative results (n = 20) corroborated those findings and highlighted the importance of racial animosity, extreme political ideologies, political rhetoric, and conspiracy theories. The implications of the current project include summarizing the possible correlates of electoral violence in the U.S., informing counter-extremism strategies and policies, and offering an avenue for future research on far-right violent extremism in the country. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Oil Exports, Political Issues, and Stock Market Nexus

This study investigates the influence of oil export and political issues on Iraq's stock exchange using various Ordinary Least Square regression models. The empirical results show that the model's effect is not similar based on the explanatory variables included, such as the Covid-19 outbreak, financial crisis, parliament elections, and ISIS emergence are not significant. In contrast, the internal conflict, oil export, and oil prices are substantial effects on the index of the Iraq stock exchange from (2004 to 2021);researchers in the literature have neglected this market due to its novel establishment after (2003). Moreover, the market capitalization still considers very small compared to the regional financial markets. The study contributes to the existing knowledge because most studies on stock market determinants consider political, economic, democratic, or governmental factors. In contrast, here, most elements included using new measurements, such as the internal conflict by cutting off the financial share of the Kurdistan region from the central state budget. Finally, the analysis incorporates the conclusions with straightforward suggestions that policymakers can use, government, investors, and supervisors to control the stock market risk. © Econjournals.

District Leaders' Concerns about Mental Health and Political Polarization in Schools: Selected Findings from the Fourth American School District Panel Survey. Data Note: Insights from the American Educator Panels. Research Report. RR-A956-8

Policymakers had hoped that the 2021-2022 school year would be a chance to recover from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic--related disruptions to schooling. Instead, media reports of staff shortages, heated or even violent school board meetings, increased student misbehavior, low student and teacher attendance, and enrollment declines suggest increased -- rather than decreased -- problems during this third pandemic school year. To learn about the prevalence of these challenges nationwide, RAND researchers surveyed 359 district and charter network leaders in the American School District Panel between October 25, 2021, and December 10, 2021. Survey results suggest that districts are confronting serious challenges in the 2021-2022 school year that might be getting in the way of student learning. Although some challenges, such as student and staff mental health, are nearly universal across districts, other challenges are more localized. Historically marginalized districts are confronting extra challenges this school year, such as getting students back in school and low teacher attendance, while a higher percentage of historically advantaged districts are encountering political polarization about COVID-19. [For the companion report "Flux in the Educator Labor Market: Acute Staff Shortages and Projected Superintendent Departures. Selected Findings from the Fourth American School District Panel Survey. Data Note: Insights from the American Educator Panels. Research Report. RR-A956-9," see ED617372.]

Shared Narrative -- Analysis on Finnish Socio-Educational Policy and National Broadcasting (YLE) Literacy during COVID-19 Variants 2021

This case study analyzed the Finnish National Broadcasting Company (YLE) literacy on socio-educational policies during the alpha and delta variant strategic turns 2021. The data comprised YLE releases, interdisciplinary global research, pandemic literacies, and statements of politicians/officials. Limitations occurred mainly in the data plenitude. Alpha variant caused socio-political responses maneuvered by politicians and officials. YLE supported without socially participating, competence-enhancing or motivating civic information. NPIs were linked to the political promises of national pandemic end during the summer. International pandemic studies were excluded from nationalized narrative, in which YLE strategically emphasized mutual experience, shared story, and approaching happy end. In August 2021, previously promised "liberation" was too close to change the narrative. Instead of delta mitigation, officials and politicians fortified the narrative towards the end. YLE conducted a closing story. Releases replaced international studies and responses with a small circle of domestic experts, who repeated the narrative they previously had manifested. No NPIs occurred, but remaining ones were lifted despite the rising incidence numbers. Conclusively, the lacking research in the YLE contributions indicated the absence of research literacy among politicians and reporters. Consequently, occurring sidetracks used modern nationalism rhetoric, supporting the main narrative. Children's 'absolute' right was on-site schooling, regardless of safety research or practices developed abroad. In further studies, the post-pandemic status and goals of Finnish education need comparative reassessments other than a "trust".

When Negativity Is the Fuel. Bots and Political Polarization in the COVID-19 Debate

The contexts of social and political polarization are generating new forms of communication that affect the digital public sphere. In these environments, different social and political actors contribute to extreme their positions, using bots to create spaces for social distancing where hate speech and incivility have a place, a phenomenon that worries scientists and experts. The main objective of this research is to analyze the role that these automated agents played in the debate on social networks about the Spanish Government's management of the global COVID-19 pandemic. For this, "Social Big Data Analysis" techniques were applied: machine learning algorithms to know the positioning of users, bot detection algorithms, "topic modeling" techniques to learn about the topics of the debate on the web, and sentiment analysis. We used a database comprised of Twitter messages published during the confinement, as a result of the Spanish state of alarm. The main conclusion is that the bots could have served to design a political propaganda campaign initiated by traditional actors with the aim of increasing tension in an environment of social emergency. It is argued that, although these agents are not the only actors that increase polarization, they do contribute to deepening the debate on certain key issues, increasing negativity.

Caught between COVID-19, Coup and Conflict--What Future for Myanmar Higher Education Reforms?

On 1 February 2021, Myanmar military dictators seized power from the elected government and halted the country's budding reform process. This article explores how Myanmar's higher education (HE) sector was affected by the coup and COVID-19 and how this has resulted in societal conflict. The article reviews first the history of military coups, then the education reforms in general and what was done in HE, before discussing the effects of COVID-19 and the coup on the sector. Voices from HE teaching staff show the tension in the role of HE as a vehicle for reform and promulgation of those in power. The article argues that the national vision propagated by Myanmar's HE sector is juxtaposed to that propagated by the Tatmadaw, both claiming to represent Myanmar's future. This research highlights the dual forces of the COVID-19 pandemic and military coup at a crucial time for HE reforms in a fragile, conflict-affected state, with the future of the reform goals of equity and equality of the sector at stake.

Fijian Students' Reactions to Required Fully Online Courses during COVID-19

The recent outbreak of the global pandemic COVID-19 required Fiji National University offer fully online courses, which is a new form of pedagogy for many students. This new form of learning benefitted many students but created obstacles for others. The purpose of this study was to investigate student perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of fully online courses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey in the form of a semi-structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 138 students. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The study found that fully online learning suits students during pandemics, natural disasters (flooding, cyclones), and political upheavals. Fully online learning also helps students who have permanent employment and have difficulty getting time off to attend face-to-face classes. It also helps maritime or remote students who have limited access to the main centre or helps lecturer/facilitator deliver instructions when he/she is out of a country or is far away. The study also confirmed that fully online learning requires robust internet connectivity and a sustainable power supply allowing students to assess course materials from the comfort of their homes at their own pace. The student's safety in terms of travel and transmission of diseases are maintained. Fully online learning classes also assist students in saving fuel costs and rushing to the classes.

Differentiation in Protest Politics: Participation by Political Insiders and Outsiders.

The political participation literature has documented a long-term trend of the normalization of noninstitutional participation that is often equated with the conventionalization of engagement in protest politics. Less is known on the extent to which noninstitutional forms are differentiated by their mobilization context. Population surveys find it difficult to contextualize individual engagement, and on-site surveys point to effects that are hard to generalize. This study fills this gap by emphasizing differentiation and distinguishing participation according to the issue of engagement. It introduces a conceptual distinction between political insiders and outsiders, defined based on the extent to which they are embedded in the organizational landscape of the dominant cleavage dimension. Using an original survey conducted in Germany during the Covid-19 crisis, the analysis demonstrates that general-population surveys are fit to examine issue-specific participation patterns. The results expose an insider and outsider divide, captured by the effect of attitudinal and behavioral indicators, and demonstrates that the two groups are equally likely to participate in noninstitutional forms. However, insiders engage on the established issues of climate and anti-racism, whereas outsiders engage on the new issues of Covid-19 related economic assistance and civil liberties restrictions. In addition, dynamic models reveal that noninstitutional participation is rooted in volatile issue preferences. Overall, the paper argues that participation during the Covid-19 crisis has furthered the trend towards a differentiated protest arena. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11109-022-09846-7.