October 21, 2026
Erin Rossiter (University of Notre Dame)
There is worldwide concern about political violence, especially in advanced democracies where its rise threatens democratic stability. This study experimentally tests a preregistered social influence approach to reducing support for political violence among individuals who already support such violence. Because it is difficult and rare to recruit supporters of political violence for behavioral research, we ask opponents of political violence to recruit a real-world social tie who supports political violence and randomly assign these dyads to discuss political violence or not. We find that, while supporters of political violence are resistant to peer persuasion in conversation, they can influence opponents to soften their stance, despite opponents receiving pre-conversation guidance drawn from tested persuasion strategies. These results demonstrate that efforts to increase civic dialogue about political violence may inadvertently soften opposition to violence, highlighting the importance of evaluating deradicalization interventions among the populations such interventions are intended to affect.