Current research overstates American support for political violence

SignificanceRecent political events show that members of extreme political groups support partisan violence, and survey evidence supposedly shows widespread public support. We show, however, that, after accounting for survey-based measurement error, support for partisan violence is far more limited....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2022-03, Vol.119 (12), p.e2116870119-e2116870119
Main Authors: Westwood, Sean J, Grimmer, Justin, Tyler, Matthew, Nall, Clayton
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aggression
Estimates
Politics
Polls & surveys
Questions
Social Sciences
Surveys
Surveys and Questionnaires
United States
Violence
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Summary:SignificanceRecent political events show that members of extreme political groups support partisan violence, and survey evidence supposedly shows widespread public support. We show, however, that, after accounting for survey-based measurement error, support for partisan violence is far more limited. Prior estimates overstate support for political violence because of random responding by disengaged respondents and because of a reliance on hypothetical questions about violence in general instead of questions on specific acts of political violence. These same issues also cause the magnitude of the relationship between previously identified correlates and partisan violence to be overstated. As policy makers consider interventions designed to dampen support for violence, our results provide critical information about the magnitude of the problem.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2116870119