Violence Against Politicians Drives Support for Political Violence Among (Some) Voters: Evidence from a Natural Experiment.

ABSTRACT: We investigate whether a real-world episode of physical violence committed in October 2023 against Thierry Baudet, leader of the Dutch far-right FvD, conditioned a differential support for political violence among different voters: voters ideologically close to the target of the attack (in-group) and voters experiencing partisan Schadenfreude toward the party of the target (out-group). The unexpectedness of the attack makes it an excellent case of exogenous treatment in a natural experiment ("Unexpected Event during Survey Design). The fact that the attack occurred in the midst of a survey unfolding a rolling cross-section design yields likely more robust estimations than usually found in similar natural experiments. Our results indicate that the attack against Baudet slightly normalized p

SUBMITTER: Nai A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12369941 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature