Moral Logics of Support for Nonviolent Resistance: Evidence From a Cross-National Survey Experiment

Abstract

An emerging consensus holds that nonviolent resistance campaigns are more successful than violent campaigns, partly because they attract more participants. Yet, we lack an understanding of whether and why nonviolent tactics attracts support. We propose two motivational logics that can explain support for nonviolence: An instrumentalist logic, whereby nonviolent resistance is preferred based on cost-benefit considerations, and an intrinsic logic where nonviolent resistance is preferred because of perceived inherent moral worth. To investigate the motivational pull of these two logics, we conduct a pre-registered survey experiment among more than 5000 respondents across 33 countries in fall 2019. We find that nonviolent tactics strongly increase movement support relative to violent tactics, and that the preference for nonviolence is primarily driven by intrinsic commitments to the moral worth of nonviolent resistance, rather than instrumental considerations.

Message or Messenger? Source and Labeling Effects in Authoritarian Response to Protest

“…Recent scholarship has tended to divide into a focus on a “hard” repression involving state use of kinetic force to contain mass threats (Gohdes, 2020; Sullivan, 2016; Svolik, 2012) and a “soft” repression involving the use of state media and information control to shape citizen attitudes and behavior on issues unrelated to mass threat (Huang 2015b; Peisakhin & Rozenas, 2018; Rozenas & Stukal, 2019). The findings in this paper, particularly outcome tests showing a decrease in willingness to protest when presented with accusatory labels—consistent with Carter and Carter (2021)—builds on research studying how official responses to contention may complement a coercive response (Potter & Wang, 2022) and research showing that depictions of protester violence decrease public support (Dahlum, Pinckney and Wig 2022; Edwards & Arnon, 2021).…”

“…Despite the ubiquity of regimes’ information-based responses to protest, we know little about their effects on public opinion. Existing research suggests that attributes of protests affect public opinion (Dahlum, Pinckney and Wig 2022; Hou & Quek, 2019; Manekin & Mitts, 2020; Wasow, 2020), but regimes also present additional information in the form of “editorializing” their responses to protest events which could shape opinion (Carter & Carter, 2021).…”

Strategies for a Nonviolent Response to Perpetrator Actions: What Can Christianity Offer to Targets of Workplace Mobbing?

“…Indeed, nonviolent resistance is not a new topic, but according to Ryan Essex et al (2023), such a response remains a disputed concept in regard to the forms and consequences of such resistance. Although nonviolent individual responses to violence are most often examined in the context of collective resistance (Dahlum et al 2022;Essex et al 2023;Vollhardt et al 2020), it is important to understand the motives that drive people to adopt these strategies. For example, a study conducted by Ryan Essex et al ( 2023) demonstrated that 12.9% of physicians surveyed mentioned conscience, ethical, moral beliefs or principles.…”

“…For example, a study conducted by Ryan Essex et al ( 2023) demonstrated that 12.9% of physicians surveyed mentioned conscience, ethical, moral beliefs or principles. In another study, Sirianne Dahlum et al (2022) explained response to violence according to two logics: instrumental, which is based on cost-benefit considerations, and internal, when nonviolent response is motivated by perceived intrinsic moral values. In this context, an important role is played by religious beliefs influencing moral decision-making and moral behaviour, which are common across the whole spectrum of religiosity (Shariff 2015).…”

Essays on Democracy, Redistribution, and Inequality

“…Chapter 3 contributes to the literature on the effect of protest on public opinion Dahlum et al, 2023). Scholars agree that the impact of protest on public opinion is conditional on the choice of protest tactics .…”