"Violence on Many Sides:" Framing Effects on Protests and Support for Repression

• In Event: The Repression of Protest

Abstract

The success of protests depends on whether they favorably affect public opinion: nonviolent resistance can win public support for a movement, but regimes counter by framing protest as violent and instigated by outsiders. We argue public perception of whether a protest is violent shifts based on framing the types of action and the identities of participants in those actions. We distinguish dimensions of (1) threat of harm, (2) bearing of arms, and (3) identity of protesters. Using survey experiments – one in Israel and one in the United States – we find support for framing effects.Threat of harm has the largest positive effect on perceptions of violence and support for repression. Surprisingly, social out-groups are not perceived as more violent, but respondents favor repressing them anyway. Support for repressing a non threatening out-group is larger than support for repressing a threatening in-group. The findings link contentious action and public opinion, and demonstrate the susceptibility of this link to framing, especially through manipulating the identity of the participants. This paper connects the literature from protracted civil conflict and contentious politics into a unified framework for studying civil organization and popular mobilization.

Authors

• Daniel Arnon, Emory University

• Pearce Edwards, Emory University