From Fox News: “Assassination culture,” or public tolerance of politically motivated violence, is increasing in the United States after a year of alarming bloodshed, according to a new national survey — especially among women.
Researchers also said they found that high usage of social media and growing pessimism about the country’s future may be eroding basic civility.
“I thought we’d be seeing a bunch of guys who were unemployed who’d be endorsing this,” said Joel Finkelstein, director of the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), which studies emerging threats to national security, civics and American youth online.
The NCRI has been studying the topic of assassination culture since before the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who shared an earlier report by the group warning of the rise of the phenomenon months before his own death, in the wake of two failed attacks on President Donald Trump.
“I thought we were looking for unemployed men and young men, and that’s not what we’re seeing,” Finkelstein said, explaining the results of the study. Instead, the research found three surprising commonalities among people most likely to support political violence:
- They spend a lot of time on social media.
- They believe the United States is “an empire in decline.”
- And they are more likely to be female.
Finkelstein pointed to the shocking number of women who have idolized Luigi Mangione, the man arrested in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024. He noted the woman have basically tried to turn Mangione into a sex symbol.
The 17-page study also lists the following disturbing key findings:
- Justification for the murder of President Donald Trump has increased from NCRI’s original study in April 2025, from 56%, to 67% today among left-of-center respondents
- The tolerance for violence also appears on the right, with 54% of right-of-center respondents expressing support for the murder of NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani
- Support for political murder is associated with pessimistic assessments of America’s trajectory
- Support for political murder is about 15% higher among females than males
- Support for political murder is associated with increased usage of social media
The survey was conducted among 2,221 American adults.
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