Fear, loathing, and support for political violence in the United States: findings from a nationally representative survey

Background: Racism, hostile sexism, homonegativity, transphobia, xenophobia, antisemitism, and Islamophobia increase risk for perpetration of interpersonal violence generally. We quantify their associations, singly and in combination, with support for and willingness to commit political violence in the United States, at a time of increased concern that such violence may become widespread. Methods: Findings are from Wave 2 of a nationally representative longitudinal survey, conducted May 18-June 8, 2023. Weighted prevalences of the characteristics under study are estimated from levels of agreement with abbreviated versions of previously validated scales, with missing values imputed using multiple imputation by chained equations. Associations with political violence are expressed as adjusted prevalence differences by level of agreement. Findings: The survey completion rate was 84.2%; there were 9385 respondents. After weighting, 50.7% (95% CI 49.4%-52.1%) of respondents were female; 62.7% (95% CI 61.2%-64.1%) were white, non-Hispanic; the weighted mean (SD) age was 48.5 (25.9) years. Prevalences of strong agreement ranged from 2.9% (95% CI 2.4%-3.4%) for antisemitism to 26.6% (95% CI 25.4%-27.8%) for homonegativity. In all cases, significantly higher percentages of persons in strong agreement than in non-agreement supported and were willing to commit political violence; the largest differences were for Islamophobia and hostile sexism. Less prevalent characteristics tended to have stronger associations with political violence. Associations were larger when characteristics were combined in a single measure. Interpretation: Racism, hostile sexism, homonegativity, transphobia, xenophobia, antisemitism, and Islamophobia were each strongly associated with support for and willingness to commit political violence in the United States. Such characteristics are resistant to change; prevention efforts should also seek to uncouple them from associated violent behaviors. Funding: Supported by grants from the Joyce Foundation, California Wellness Foundation, and Heising-Simons Foundation, and by the California Firearm Violence Research Center Violence Prevention Research Program, both at the University of California, Davis.