Abstract
Scholars have extensively studied factors that increase mobilization and lead people to start or continue protesting. Why, however, some protest movements demobilize after only one event, while others last for years remains little understood. In this paper, we revisit the question of why protesters (de)mobilize. Based on previous research highlighting the role of emotions for mobilization, we ask whether regulated emotions explain protest demobilization at the individual level. We pit two individual-level mechanisms against each other that drive protesters’ choice to continue or end protesting. In online experiments we randomly assign respondents to protest participation, which varies their ability to regulate emotions. Results show that protesters emotionally regulate their negative emotions. However, this does not lead to demobilization, as protesters feel more positive and become more willing to take up costs of further protesting, such as state repression.