One in five US adults condone ‘justified’ political violence, mega-survey finds

As mistrust and alienation from democratic institutions peaks, researchers explore how willing Americans are to commit violence

One in five adults in the United States, equivalent to about 50 million people, believe that political violence is justified at least in some circumstances, a new mega-survey has found.

A team of medical and public health scientists at the University of California, Davis enlisted the opinions of almost 9,000 people across the country to explore how far willingness to engage in political violence now goes.