The psychology of revolution

Abstract

Revolutions are attempts to forcibly overthrow the political and social order. However, most revolutions fail to generate longer-term psychological changes to bring about a match between the behavior of the population and the espoused goals of the revolution. Attempts by the new ruling 'revolutionary' elite to re-establish order in society often result in a resurgence of repression and corruption, and imprisonment for those considered 'anti-revolutionary'. Recent psychological research on revolutions explains this failure through limitations in political plasticity, the speed and extent to which political behavior does or does not change, which constrain the impact a revolution can have on individual and collective behavior.