ABSTRACT
People can be motivated to engage in collective action for climate protection because they are emotionally moved by the idea that they can achieve something together. To date, specific elicitors of this emotion in the context of non-normative climate protests are unclear. One possible elicitor of feelings of being moved is the anticipated success of the protest, but it is not clear which criteria climate activists use to evaluate whether their actions are successful or not. To better understand the motivation to engage in non-normative collective action for climate protection and the respective success criteria, we conducted structured interviews (N = 30) in Germany with activists of the ‘Last Generation’, a group that engages in non-normative collective action for climate protection. Qualitative content analyses revealed that feelings of being moved were mainly evoked by solidarity among activists, especially in threatening situations. Perceived success criteria predominantly focused on raising awareness for the severity of climate change. The identified emotion elicitors as well as the success criteria enhance our understanding of sustained collective climate action.