The Effects of Partisan Elites’ Violent Rhetoric on Support for Political Violence

Abstract Violent partisan hostility is a growing concern for American democracy, yet the role of partisan elites in driving support for political violence remains underexplored. This is especially problematic given their significant influence over public opinion. How does partisan elites’ rhetoric threatening violence affect support for violence against opposing partisans? Focusing on social media, where violent messages by partisan elites from both sides can reach a wide audience with potentially devastating effects, I explore how such messages influence support for violence against opposing partisans. Drawing insights from theories of partisan opinion leadership and inter-group conflict, I conduct a two-by-two (violent rhetoric vs. non-violent rhetoric; co-party elites vs. opposing party elites), pre-registered survey experiment on a sample reflecting the national population. I demonstrate that co-party (but not opposing party) elites’ violent rhetoric increases support for political violence and that partisans fail to counteract elites’ violent rhetoric. Furthermore, I show that fear mediates the impact of violent rhetoric, highlighting its role in fostering support for political violence through fearmongering. This paper is among the first to examine the effects of partisan elites’ violent rhetoric on support for political violence, advancing our knowledge in partisanship, emotion and politics, and political communication.