Does Inflammatory Rhetoric Boost Support for Political Violence? Considering the Role of Geographic Context

There has been significant speculation about the role that inflammatory elite rhetoric has played in sparking support for political violence in the United States. However, the extent to which uncivil and intolerant rhetoric contributes to support for political violence remains unclear. Similarly, the impact of racial/ethnic context on attitudes towards political violence is unclear. We report on the results from three experiments that included various measures of uncivil/intolerant rhetoric, geographic context, and political violence. Across our diverse set of experiments, we find that local racial heterogeneity is strongly associated with increased support for political violence. However, we find little evidence that inflammatory rhetoric, directly or indirectly, bolsters support for partisan violence. While our results cast doubt on the claim that inflammatory rhetoric from elites is responsible for bolstering broad support for partisan violence among Americans, they do suggest that increased heterogeneity may bolster support for political violence regardless of rhetoric elites adopt.