Perceived Victimhood Shapes Support for Interpartisan Political Violence in the United States

Objective: Understanding the drivers of political violence is critical, given the destructive consequences it has on the fabric of society. Prior work has established the importance of situational and dispositional predictors of political violence, such as search for significance and meaning and experiencing trauma. However, these predictors do not fully account for one of its most worrisome ingredients—the tendency to feel aggrieved and to express that grievance violently. Here, we examine how trait victimhood undergirds individuals’ support for, and engagement with, political violence among Democrats and Republicans in the United States. Method: In Study 1 (N = 393), we examined the predictive power of trait victimhood on support for political violence. In Study 2 (N = 1,000), we tested the same model among a nationally representative sample of U.S. partisans with (self-reported) real-world participation in political violence. In Study 3 (N = 824), we experimentally examined whether inducing intergroup competitive victimhood increases support for political violence, as a function of trait victimhood. Results: In Studies 1–2, trait victimhood strongly predicted support for political violence—an association mediated through intergroup competitive victimhood beliefs. The association between search for meaning and support for violence was also moderated by trait victimhood. In Study 3, the intergroup competitive victimhood manipulation significantly increased support for political violence only among high trait victimhood participants. Conclusion: These results illustrate the importance of trait victimhood—a psychological mechanism that has been undervalued in this context—as a critical psychological force underlying political violence.