Republicans and conservatives are more likely than Democrats or liberals to justify political violence in 17 surveyed situations, according to a study published September 16, 2026, in the open access journal PLOS One by Garen J. Wintemute from the University of California Davis and colleagues.
Political violence, defined as "the use of physical force to advance political objectives," includes targeted and terrorist violence. Researchers recognize troubling levels of support for political violence in the US but do not fully understand how political affiliation may inform these beliefs.
Wintemute and colleagues conducted a survey of 8,620 US adults from May 13 to June 2, 2022. The survey gathered respondents' political affiliations, ranging from Strong Republican to Strong Democrat; their general beliefs about democracy and American society; and their willingness to support or engage in political violence.
In the survey, political violence (represented by the phrase "force or violence") was defined as "physical force strong enough that it could cause pain or injury to a person." Participants decided whether violence was justified in general and across 17 specific situations (e.g., "to return Donald Trump to the presidency this year"). Those who justified political violence rated their willingness to engage in it personally. All respondents also reported the likelihood that they would someday use firearms in connection with political violence.
Results indicated that higher percentages of Republicans (35.3%-49.5%) than Democrats (24.7%-26.7%) considered violence to be justified to advance at least one of the political objectives. Republicans endorsed violence for a greater number of specific political objectives than Democrats.
Strong Republicans were more likely than strong Democrats to anticipate being armed in a future politically violent situation. However, Republicans were not more willing than Democrats to engage in political violence personally; in fact, few respondents (<3%) were "very or completely willing" to use violence on another person for political purposes.
The researchers made statistical adjustments to reduce errors from false positive or negative results. They importantly emphasize that these results were extracted from a sample comprising roughly 0.0025% of the US population and that all conclusions must be contextualized within the 17 political situations provided in the study materials. The US's political climate in 2022 — including the war against Ukraine and widely publicized mass shootings in New York and Texas — likely impacted these results as well.
The authors add: "These aren't one-off findings. We've seen quite similar results in subsequent iterations of the survey, through mid-2026. Perhaps most important: right across the political spectrum, most Americans reject political violence completely. We can work together to create a culture in which political violence is unacceptable."
In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/3UyNVac
Citation: Wintemute GJ, Crawford A, Robinson SL, Tancredi D, Tomsich EA, Schleimer JP, et al. (2026) Party affiliation, political ideology, views on democracy and society, and support for political violence in the United States of America: findings from a nationally representative survey. PLoS One 21(9): e0355678. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0355678
Author countries: USA.
Funding: This work was supported grants from the Joyce Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation, and the Heising-Simons Foundation, and by the California Firearm Violence Research Center UC Davis Health and the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program. External funders played no role in the design of the study; the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; or writing of the manuscript.
