“Entrapment in a spiral of escalating political violence is not inevitable. Those who promote violence, whether in government or not, must recognize that they do not have the public’s support. The large majority of us who reject political violence must make our rejection known, creating a climate of unacceptability for violence that will help prevent its occurrence.”

-Garen Wintemute, director of CVP, professor, and lead author

About the Research

FINDINGS IN BRIEF

• For the population as a whole, there were small increases from 2024 to 2025 in the prevalence of the belief that violence was usually or always justified to advance at least 1 of 20 political objectives (2024: 32.3%; 2025: 35.6%) and to advance 16 of 20 specified objectives when these were considered individually.
• There were no changes in high-level personal willingness to commit political violence at any level of severity (from property damage to homicide) or against any target population, or in expectation of firearm use in future political violence.
• Despite some increases in support for political violence among Democrats, MAGA Republicans were substantially more likely than strong Democrats to consider violence usually or always justified to advance at least 1 of 20 political objectives (MAGA Republicans 52.2%; strong Democrats 32.1%) and to advance 10 of 20 objectives when these were considered individually.
• MAGA Republicans and strong Democrats did not differ in the percentages that were very or completely willing to commit political violence by level of severity or against any target population, and such willingness was uncommon.
• A small group of non-Republican MAGA supporters had higher prevalences than most other groups on many measures.

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

These findings run counter to the perceptions that the United States is in a new era of increasing political violence and that the threat of violence arises primarily from the political left.  The view broadly and across time is hopeful. In each iteration of this survey from 2022 to 2025, the vast majority of respondents have rejected political violence. Of the minority who considered it justifiable under specified circumstances, the vast majority were unwilling to commit political violence themselves.

METHODS

Findings are from Wave 4 of a nationally representative annual cohort survey, conducted online May 23 to June 13, 2025. Participants were members of the Ipsos KnowledgePanel. There were 8,248 respondents for this analysis; the completion rate was 90.0%.

Citation

Wintemute GJ, Robinson SL, Crawford A, Schleimer JP, Tancredi DJ, Shev AB, Tomsich EA, Wright MA, Velasquez B, Cruz SS, Pear VA. Views on democracy and political violence in the United States in 2025: findings from a nationally representative survey. Injury Epidemiology. 2026 May 27;13(1):43.

Learn More

• Read the paper in Injury Epidemiology
• An early version of this was published in 2025 as a working paper in SocArXiv