Work failure, social rejection, and abuse predict resorting to political violence

Evidence

The research team involved in that study conducted logistic regression analysis to determine which specific aspects of loss of significance, if any, were correlated with violent behavior and found that “most of the indicators of loss of significance were positively related to the probability of political violence. At the bivariate level when individuals experienced failure at work, when they were rejected in social relationships, or when they were victims of abuse, they were more likely to resort to violence to pursue their ideological goals.” — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America, 160

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete push events (work failure, rejection, abuse) map onto the specific life experiences the reader will probe in the interviews to test withdrawal-of-conflict theory. — connects to: Both deprivation and relative gratification explain individual political violence; Sustained moral disengagement predicts later violence while its renunciation predicts restraint — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 274; Cumulative micro-aggressions compound into vulnerability to structural violence — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 143 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Political violence stems from frustration at a gap between expectations and capabilities #corroborates (0.90) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4287
• Both deprivation and relative gratification explain individual political violence #expands (0.80)
• No simple direct relationship links socioeconomic change to political violence #complicates (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4343
• Blame attribution determines whether grievances politicize or depoliticize #qualifies (0.80)
• Conflict predictors are consistent but their causal links to violence are not #complicates (0.78) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4366
• Ordinary physical punishment correlates dose-dependently with severe violence #exemplifies (0.78) — , The Rod and the Child, 9784
• Sustained moral disengagement predicts later violence while its renunciation predicts restraint #qualifies (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 274
• Cumulative micro-aggressions compound into vulnerability to structural violence #corroborates (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 143
• Contextual facilitation factors predict civil strife more than deprivation does #complicates (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4323
• Harming victims increases derogation and commitment to violence #corroborates (0.72)