“Nobody’s paying me to cry”: the causes of activist burnout in United States animal rights activists

Abstract

We examine the causes of activist burnout–a condition in which the accumulative stress associated with activism becomes so debilitating that once-committed activists are forced to scale back on or disengage from their activism–in 17 United States animal rights activists. Following a phenomenological qualitative approach, analysis of interview data revealed three primary categories of burnout causes: 1) intrinsic motivational and psychological factors, 2) organizational and movement culture, and 3) within-movement in-fighting and marginalization. Implications for understandings of activist burnout and the AR movement are discussed.