Abstract: Mass incidents, which refer to the conflicts between certain civilians and local administrations, are typical collective action (CA) in China. In social psychological field, the motivational mechanism of CA includes research on group relative deprivation, group identity, group-based anger, and group efficacy. Meanwhile, the organizational mechanism of CA includes research on emergent norm, rumor and de-individuation. group-based anger and group efficacy belong to both motivational and organizational mechanism. These psychological factors are expected to be further integrated to discuss and explain mass incidents in China.

Key words: mass incidents, collective action, motivational mechanism, organizational mechanism