How Fear of Violence Drives Intergroup Conflict

Evidence from a Panel Survey in India

Bibliographic Data

ID4087347
AuthorsSebastian Schutte (0000-0003-0701-9647, Conditions of Violence and Peace, Peace Research Institute Oslo, Oslo, Norway, corresponding author), Constantin Ruhe (0000-0002-1698-6877, Institute of Political Science/Department of Social Sciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt, Germany), Niranjan Sahoo (0000-0001-7099-7393, Governance and Politics, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, India)
Year2023
Volume35
Issue2
Pages229-247
Publication date2023-02-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTerrorism and Political Violence (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0954-6553 • E-ISSN: 1556-1836
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09546553.2021.1903439
OpenAlexW3156473299
LanguageEN
Citations received7

Earlier research on ethnic and religious conflict has identified fear as an important motivation. While theoretically sound, this expectation has never been tested at larger scales in ongoing episodes of political violence. Instead, conceptual progress has been made in lab experiments. Combining insights from observational research and stylized experiments, we predict that fear for personal safety due to witnessed violence causes prejudice against out-groups, enhanced internal cohesion, and support for extremist actors. To test these predictions, we conducted surveys in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh with identical respondents in three waves starting in January 2017. The surveys continued during the tense Legislative Assembly elections in the Spring. The results largely corroborate the theoretical expectations and present a hard in-vivo test of long-standing conjectures

Criminology · Legislature · Misconduct · Political science · Politics · Law · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access