How Americans Evaluate Those Who Commit Political Violence

• In Event: Partisan Violence and Incivility

Abstract

There is increasing attention to the problem of public support for political violence in the United States (Uscinski et. al, 2021). While the prohibition of politically motivated violence is a core democratic principle and strong social norm, the events of the January 6th Insurrection demonstrate the willingness of many Americans to engage in political violence or to look the other way. This willingness to overlook certain types of political violence, presents a threat to democracy, even in the absence of overt support. The erosion of democratic norms, including heightened collective endorsement of actions and behaviors that violate those norms, coincides with democratic backsliding (Graham and Svolik 2020). Political violence is a form of political participation that runs counter to established democratic norms and is an increasing scholarly and security concern. While the contextual conditions that make political violence more likely have been the subject of a great deal of inquiry, attitudes toward violence have been comparatively understudied, particularly in the American context. We know little about when and why people may stop short of supporting political violence, but excuse it nonetheless. We aim to address this significant gap in the literature through examining for whom and under what circumstances citizens are willing to refrain from prosecuting non-normative political acts, up to and including political violence. We pay particular attention to the roles of shared partisanship, race, gender, and socio-economic status of perpetrators. We examine these questions through a series of pre-registered conjoint experiments on nationally representative samples. Furthermore, we consider the relative weight individuals give to these different social identities to understand the social psychological underpinnings of democratic backsliding in the United States and the extent of implicit support for political violence.

Authors

• Arif Memovic

• Kal Munis, Utah Valley University

• Nicole Huffman