Grievance, Social Dominance Orientation, and Authoritarianism in the Choice and Justification of Terror Versus Protest

The present research examines the extent to which grievance and social-personality factors including Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) influence support for and justification of both peaceful and violent forms of political action. Using an experimental design that manipulated level of grievance, we asked a sample of 2932 US adult participants to read a vignette, and then to indicate their likelihood of engaging in any form of political action as a result of the experiences portrayed in the vignette. In addition, participants were asked to choose between violent actions and peaceful protest, and to indicate the extent to which each form of action was justified. We found that participants who were in the high grievance condition were more likely to favor taking action, and felt that both forms of action were more justified. Those who were higher on SDO and RWA generally indicated less likelihood of taking any action, although those higher on SDO were more likely to both choose the terror attack and indicate that it was more justified.