Support for political violence plummets —except for one group

A recent study says Americans’ support for political violence fell in 2026, but MAGA supporters remain the most likely to justify it.

PsyPost covered the research, which was published as a preprint on SocArXiv and not yet peer-reviewed. But early nationally surveys suggests that American public support for political violence decreased heading into the 2026 midterm elections, contrary to popular fears.

“The findings indicate that while partisan tensions remain high, about three-quarters of U.S. adults say political violence is never justified in general, and very few say they would be willing to commit it,” reports Psypost.

But those numbers do not necessarily hold true for the MAGA political enclave, say researchers.

When researchers examined differences among political groups, they found that MAGA Republicans and MAGA supporters who do not identify as Republicans tended to report higher levels of justification for political violence compared to Democrats and non-MAGA Republicans.

“For instance, 50.5 percent of MAGA Republicans and 52.5 percent of non-Republican MAGA supporters considered violence usually or always justified to advance at least one objective, compared with 35.8 percent overall,” reported Psypost. “… Among respondents who considered violence justified, non-Republican MAGA supporters were more willing than others to commit violence against 12 of 14 target populations.”

These numbers ranked second behind strong Democrats, who were slightly more prone to justify violence against private armed militias and federal immigration agents.

“Declines in support occurred across the political spectrum overall, though changes within individual groups were mostly small,” Psypost reported. “MAGA Republicans moved slightly in the other direction on several items about the potential need for violence and civil war.”

“We found, as others have, that support for political violence is generally stronger on the political right than on the political left,” said research leader Garen Wintemute, professor of emergency medicine and director of the Centers for Violence Prevention at the University of California.

This dynamic mirrors the team’s earlier findings, reports PsyPost, pointing out that in a separate study recently published in PLOS One, the researchers analyzed baseline data collected from the same survey project in 2022 and found that Republicans and conservatives were much more likely than Democrats and liberals to view political violence as justified for specific objectives.

But most respondents reject political violence in general, Wintemute added, saying the “willingness to commit political violence … is rare across the board.”

“The vast majority of respondents in our surveys reject political violence altogether, and most of those who consider it acceptable are not willing to become involved in it themselves,” he explained.