ABSTRACT

In recent years, scholars have argued that protests that employ nonviolent tactics attract greater support and are therefore more likely to succeed than those that use violence. We argue that how protest tactics are perceived is not a purely objective determination, but can be influenced in part by observer characteristics – in particular, by partisan identity. We conducted a survey experiment on two independent samples through the MTurk platform, randomly assigning protester group identity and tactics. Results show that when controlling for assigned tactics, self-identified Republicans but not Democrats perceive higher levels of violence when a disliked group is protesting. The effect is strongest in regard to tactics that are nominally the least disruptive. The findings have implications for theories of nonviolent protest, the legitimacy of repression, and the prospects for marginal groups to influence policy in polarized societies.

摘要

近年来，学者们认为，采用非暴力策略的抗议活动会吸引更多支持，因此比使用暴力的抗议活动更有可能取得成功。我们认为，如何看待抗议策略并不是一个纯粹的客观决定，而是可能部分受到观察者特征的影响——尤其是党派认同。我们通过 MTurk 平台对两个独立样本进行了调查实验，随机分配抗议者群体身份和策略。结果表明，在控制分配的策略时，自我认同的共和党人而非民主党人会在不喜欢的团体抗议时感受到更高程度的暴力。对于名义上破坏性最小的策略，效果最强。这些发现对非暴力抗议的理论有影响，