John Locher / AP
Americans across political spectrum reject assassination, justifications for political violence: F&M expert
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Jordan Wilkie/WITF
John Locher / AP
The first thing to remember in the wake of a high-profile act of political violence, according to one of Lancaster County’s top experts in measuring public opinion, is that what people see online does not reflect the real world.
After prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed in Utah on Wednesday, speculation about the shooter’s motive ran rampant in online spaces, with partisans on the right and left saying their opponents are guilty of wanting to use violence to settle political differences.
But to Berwood Yost, director for the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College, that noise online doesn’t reflect what he knows from studies of public opinion – that the vast majority of Americans reject political violence. What Yost called the best research, based off of well-designed surveys, show 98% of Americans oppose murder as a political tool.
“Online isn’t real life,” said Yost, the head of the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. “The things that you hear and see expressed in those places don’t really reflect the broad majority of opinion that exist in this country.”
Yost said the overwhelming opposition to political violence is consistent across the political spectrum, confirming that support for specific acts of violence is limited to a small fringe of the population.
He pointed to a recent academic paper that critiqued surveys purporting to show broad support for violence. The paper’s authors found that support for violent acts like assassination are less driven by political ideology than by factors unique to individuals, psychological or otherwise.
Public opinion surveys that talk about political violence have received renewed attention on major news outlets this week in the wake of Kirk’s killing, but Yost said many are similarly flawed. For example, a poll conducted last year by Marist for NPR and PBS asked people to rate their level of agreement with the phrase, “Americans may have to resort to violence in order to get the country back on track.”
“What does that even mean,” Yost said. “I mean, if you leave it to someone’s imagination as to what that might include, does that include property crimes or does that include murder?”
The responses to the Marist survey found 19% of American adults agree or strongly agree with that statement, with the most support among Republican men. But other surveys trying to measure the same sentiment find different levels of support. How a question is worded, when a question was asked, and other factors all can tilt survey respondents to appearing to support violence as a political tool, Yost said.
News reports citing flawed surveys can create a feedback cycle, Yost said. By incorrectly highlighting perceived acceptance for political violence, the news media and others sharing the results may actually generate more acceptance.
“It makes it seem like more people support that then do, and so it opens up the thinking that, ‘Well, geez, lots of people feel this is acceptable so it’s OK for me to do it,’” Yost said.
Perhaps an even worse consequence, Yost said, is a poisoned and violent political environment that could drive more people away from being politically or civically active.
“That’s a great harm to our democracy as well.”
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
