Very few Americans believe political violence is acceptable

Washington, DC, August 22, 2022 – A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that overall very few Americans agree that political violence is acceptable. Eighty-five percent of Americans disagree that it is acceptable for a member of their political party to threaten and/or intimidate others to achieve a political goal. Eighty-three percent also disagree that violent acts are acceptable in order to achieve their idea of a better society. Additionally, 85% of Americans do not believe it is acceptable for someone in their political party to commit violence to achieve a political goal. The poll also shows believing that political violence is unacceptable is a bipartisan notion.

Two-thirds of Americans are concerned about acts of violence committed against people in their community because of their political (66%) or religious beliefs (64%). Both a majority of Democrats (73% and 71%) and Republicans (60% and 58%) are concerned about acts of violence for political and religious beliefs, but Democrats are more likely to say they are concerned than Republicans. Eighty-two percent of Americans say that domestic terrorism is a threat to American society, with Democrats (90%) more likely to say this than Republicans (76%).

Sixty-two percent of Americans say they are familiar with the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago and 70% say they would do nothing if Donald Trump ends up arrested by the FBI or federal law enforcement. One in 10 say they would join a protest.

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between August 16-17, 2022 on behalf of Thomson Reuters. For this survey, a sample of 1,005 Americans age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. The sample includes 436 Democrats, 387 Republicans, and 125 independents. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including but not limited to coverage error and measurement error. The poll also has a credibility interval of ± 5.7 percentage points for Democrats, ± 6.1 percentage points for Republicans, and ± 10.7 percentage points for independents.  

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Jackson
Senior Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]

Annaleise Lohr
Director, US
Public Affairs
[email protected]

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