Americans' Support for Political Violence May Be Misunderstood, Analyst Claims

Recent events have raised concerns about rising levels of political violence in the US, with some surveys indicating a significant number of Americans support the use of force for political ends. However, a series of recent surveys by the expert suggest that this support may be misinterpreted due to confusion about what the questions are asking. The expert's own research, which uses AI to ask respondents about their thought process, reveals that a high level of support for political violence may be the result of respondents misinterpreting the question, rather than actual support.

Key Takeaways:

• A series of recent surveys have reported a large number of Americans are willing to support the use of force for political ends, with some even believing that violence may be sometimes justified.
• The expert's own research, using AI to ask respondents about their thought process, suggests that a high level of support for political violence may be the result of confusion about what the questions are asking, rather than actual support.
• The research used a cognitive interviewing process to ask respondents about their interpretation of the questions, revealing that many respondents had misinterpreted the questions in various ways, such as thinking "use of force" meant legal means rather than physical violence.
• The expert states that many respondents who agreed with the statement that "use of force is justified to remove President Trump from office" were actually thinking of legal means of removal, such as impeachment, rather than physical violence.
• In one example, 57% of respondents who agreed with the statement that "use of force is justified to remove President Trump from office" responded that they were thinking of "firing" or "forcing" him out of office due to rules or laws.
• The research also found that respondents were often ambiguous in their responses, with some indicating that they would only support use of force in extreme circumstances, such as a coup.

Statistics:

• 33% of Democrats agreed with the statement that "use of force is justified to remove President Trump from office".
• However, when asked why they agreed, over 57% of respondents gave responses indicating they were thinking of legal means of removal, such as impeachment, rather than physical violence.
• Only about 8% of Democrats were coded as supporting use of force in violent terms under current conditions.
• 29% of Republicans agreed that "use of the military is justified to stop protests against President Trump's agenda", but almost all of these respondents were thinking of the National Guard intervening non-violently to stop violent protests and riots.
• Only about 2.6% of Republicans gave comments supporting use of the military against nonviolent protests.
• Almost all respondents stated that violence should be a last resort when all other peaceful and legal methods fail.

Sources:

• Ryan Kennedy, "A series of recent events has sparked alarm about rising levels of political violence in the U.S.: the assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10; the murder of a Democratic Minnesota state legislator and her husband in June; and two attempts to kill Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign."
• Ryan Kennedy, "My own recent surveys, which use AI to ask people about why they give their answers, show the surprisingly high level of support in response to these questions is likely the result of confusion about what these questions are asking, not actual support for political violence."
• CloudResearch, "AI interviewing system developed by CloudResearch, a well-known survey research company, to ask respondents some of the same questions about political violence from previous surveys."
• Journal of Survey Research, "estimsted that anywhere from 4% to 7% of respondents in online surveys are 'bogus respondents' who are selecting arbitrary responses."