Sam Fuller (APRW)

Speaker & Title

Sam Fuller, "The Politics of Supporting Violence"

Abstract

When and to what extent do citizens support political violence (SPV), and how does this influence the perpetration of political violence and, consequently, the functioning of democracy? These are the questions at the heart of my book project The Politics of Supporting Violence. Here I present three projects that serve as its foundation. First, the results of a fifty-three study meta-analysis to not only summarize the measurement of SPV. Overlooked by previous literature, we find that young adults are significantly more likely than their older counterparts to support political violence and are affected differently by experimental treatments aimed at manipulating support for political violence. Second, a three-study paper which develops and validates new, concise batteries to measure SPV. We find that SPV is a multidimensional concept: respondents 1) differentiate their support between actor-target combinations and reactive versus proactive violence—that is, violence in response to violence versus unprovoked violence—and 2) vary dramatically across justification and the violent response's severity. Furthermore, reactive support is remarkably high, especially compared to proactive SPV. Third, a project (currently in the field) aimed at reducing support for political violence by correcting misperceptions about out-partisans’ (anti)democratic attitudes. Together, these projects help synthesize what we know about support for political violence, particularly in the U.S., and establish a strong basis for future research.