The mode of client participation we label as ‘acquiescence’ arises when a client experiences the emotional resonance of both contestants’ framing efforts, but the profession’s defensive framing efforts dominate. By acquiescence, we refer to clients passively accepting the profession’s established arrangements despite latent grievances. We argue that clients enact acquiescence when they feel very ashamed of deviating from the profession’s prescriptions as well as somewhat afraid of relying on the movement’s alternative project and angry at the movement for jeopardizing a proper response to their needs, yet nonetheless also somewhat proud of the movement’s change project. Clients feeling ambivalent in this way remain attached to the profession and consider deviance from its prescriptions as wrong, which leads them to passively accept established arrangements despite their trust in the movement’s experiential knowledge. This configuration of emotional resonance is illustrated in Figure 5.

Exemplifying this mode of participation are citizens who complied with and refrained from openly criticizing public health mandates to prevent the propagation of Covid-19 despite privately disagreeing with some aspects of them, suggesting that their desire to avoid being targets of shaming led them to passively accept the arrangements upheld by public health professionals. A report for the Guardian published in the middle of the pandemic observed that on social media, “[t]housands of people [were] blaming, naming, and shaming others for their improper pandemic practices” ( Citation: Tait, 2020 Tait, A. (2020). Pandemic shaming: is it helping us keep our distance?. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/apr/04/pandemic-shaming-is-it-helping-us-keep-our-distance ) . This created a climate of intense peer pressure that led many citizens to comply with public health mandates in order to avoid being seen as deviant, and to feel somewhat angry at movements that challenged the public health profession, despite silently agreeing with aspects of the challenger movement’s critique and feeling somewhat proud of the movement’s alternative project ( Citation: Graso, Chen & al., 2021 Graso, M., Chen, F. & Reynolds, T. (2021). Moralization of Covid-19 health response: Asymmetry in tolerance for human costs. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 93. 104084. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2020.104084 ) . Clients experiencing the framing contest in this way remain detached from the challenger movement, although they partially trust the experiential knowledge of movement adherents.

A variety of studies have documented the mechanisms that lead most people under certain conditions to downplay misgivings and grievances and to passively accept established arrangements upheld by institutional authorities, thereby contributing to their maintenance. These mechanisms include peer pressure, rationalizations, and denial ( Citation: Delmestri & Goodrick, 2016 Delmestri, G. & Goodrick, E. (2016). Looking Away : Denial and Emotions in Institutional Stability and Change. InGehman, J., Lounsbury, M. & Greenwood, R. (Eds.), Research in the Sociology of Organizations. (pp. 233–271). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Retrieved from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S0733-558X201600048A008/full/html ; Citation: Zerubavel, 2006 Zerubavel, E. (2006). The Elephant in the RoomSilence and Denial in Everyday Life. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/book/1794 ; Citation: Ashforth & Anand, 2003 Ashforth, B. & Anand, V. (2003). The normalization of corruption in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 25. 1–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-3085(03)25001-2 ) , as well as uncritical acceptance of institutional roles ( Citation: Clegg, Courpasson & al., 2006 Clegg, S., Courpasson, D. & Phillips, N. (2006). Chapter 6: The heart of darkness. In Power and organizations.. SAGE. ; Citation: Goffman, 1983 Goffman, E. (1983). The Interaction Order: American Sociological Association, 1982 Presidential Address. American Sociological Review, 48(1). 1. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095141 ; Citation: Marcuse, 1965 Marcuse, H. (1965). Repressive tolerance. InWolff, R., Moore, B. & Marcuse, H. (Eds.), A critique of pure tolerance. (pp. 81–123). ) and internalized norms of obedience to seemingly or patently unjust authorities ( Citation: Milgram, 1971 Milgram, S. (1971). The individual in a social world: essays and experiments. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. ; Citation: Arendt, 1963 Arendt, H. (1963). Eichmann in Jerusalem: a report on the banality of evil. Penguin Books. ) . The dynamics of clients’ acquiescence theorized here complement extant understandings of passive acceptance by institutional constituents of dissatisfactory arrangements, a form of participation that seems ubiquitous in many contexts.