Women Are More Likely Than Men to Endorse Political Violence
20 hours ago
- #gender studies
- #political violence
- #social media
- New data challenges the assumption that young men are the primary supporters of political violence, showing women may be more likely to endorse it under certain conditions.
- A survey by the Network Contagion Research Institute found that 67% of left-of-center respondents justified the murder of Trump, while 54% of right-of-center respondents justified the murder of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
- Women were significantly more likely than men to support political violence, being 21% more likely to justify Mamdani's murder and 15% more likely to justify Trump's murder.
- Tolerance for violence was strongly linked to heavy social media use and a belief in America's terminal decline, rather than traditional extremism or biological sex differences.
- The rise of 'punitive femininity' describes how moral concern transforms into punitive actions, fueled by online outrage, emotional manipulation, and moral certainty.
- Social media platforms amplify outrage and absolutism, flattening moral complexity and glorifying condemnation.
- Historically, women have played a stabilizing role in moral and civic life, but social media is eroding norms of restraint, even among groups associated with moral caution.
- Addressing social stability requires reducing the rewards for moral outrage and support for violence.