A strain by any other name: Investigating the role of politically salient stress in support for political violence

On January 6, 2021, thousands of supporters of then-President Trump marched on the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the congressional tallying of votes – ultimately resulting in five deaths and hundreds of injuries. Since then, polling in the United States has continued to indicate support for political violence– with credible estimates suggesting that this attitude may be held by between 10 and 76 million Americans. Around the same time, millions of Americans participated in civil rights demonstrations following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor – advocating for changes to policing practices. Despite the presence of outside agitators and heavy-handed police tactics, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement overwhelmingly abstained from violent mobilization. My dissertation addresses a key question behind this issue. Why do some people support political violence, while others do not? As the January 6 and BLM supporters contrast, key narratives from political leaders and precise attribution of grievances play a critical role. Building upon strain and grievance-based theories, I propose the Politically Salient Stress model of support for political violence, centering the intersection of impacts, attribution, and narratives. I find that generalized ‘strain’ or grievance approaches are ineffective at explaining support, while theorized mechanisms of the PSS model show promise. I further find support for the PSS approach, with narratives among a far-right online community, and increases in ingroup empathy leading to greater support for political violence. To test these relationships and mechanisms I integrate quantitative approaches and leverage data from three sources: a nationally representative survey, a far-right online community forum, and a sample of U.S. adults. For the nationally representative survey, I examine how strains and perceived legitimacy of institutions correspond with respondent criminality and support for political violence. I then assess acute shifts in violent rhetoric following salient political speech on a far-right web-forum in the lead-up to the January 6 attack. Finally, I consider the divergent impacts of empathy on support for political violence using a survey experiment on a sample of U.S. adults. Combining these approaches, this dissertation tests key hypotheses from the PSS model and illustrates the utility of disaggregating strains.