In the wake of George Floyd’s tragic killing and the subsequent global uproar, a new study by Leann McLaren of Duke University and Zoe Walker of the University of Michigan sheds light on a pressing question: How do disruptive protest tactics influence public support for movements like Black Lives Matter?
Published in the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, their research found that while both Black and white Americans viewed disruptive protest tactics more negatively than peaceful ones, disruptive tactics paradoxically increased white Americans’ perceptions of the Black Lives Matter movement’s political effectiveness.
“My co-author and I first became interested in this topic in 2020 at the height of racial justice protests in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor,” explained Walker, a PhD candidate in political science.
“Much of the discourse in mainstream news outlets and among our friends and family was about the decorum and behavior of the protesters and what consequences this might have for the Black Lives Matter Movement as a whole. After reviewing the existing literature, we found there was very little research on how public opinion responds to violent and non-violent protest tactics during racial justice protests. So, we started designing a survey experiment to fill this gap.”
The study included a sample of over 3,000 American adults, with approximately half of the participants identifying as white and the other half as Black. This demographic consideration was crucial for the study’s aim to explore racial differences in responses to the protests. The mean age of participants was 44, and the sample was politically diverse, with a majority identifying as Democrats, a smaller proportion as Republicans, and the remainder as independents or affiliated with third parties.
In the study, which was conducted in December 2022, participants were presented with a series of hypothetical news articles, crafted by the researchers to simulate real-life reporting on protests in response to a police killing of an unarmed Black man. These mock articles varied in their description of the protest tactics employed, ranging from peaceful marches to more disruptive actions like blocking traffic and violent actions such as setting fire to an empty police station.
The researchers noted varying effects of protest tactics on the perceptions of Black Lives Matter between Black and white Americans. . While both groups expressed more negative views towards more disruptive actions like looting or setting fire to a police station compared to peaceful marches or blocking traffic, these views were significantly more pronounced among white respondents.
This indicates that disruptive protests, often spotlighted in media coverage, might elicit stronger negative reactions from white observers than from Black individuals, who may view such actions in the context of a broader struggle for justice and equality.
Interestingly, the study also found that, despite these negative reactions to disruptive tactics, such actions could increase white Americans’ perceptions of the Black Lives Matter movement’s political effectiveness. This suggests that while disruptive protests might foster some negative feelings, they also signal to some observers a strong and potentially effective mobilization.
On the other hand, Black Americans’ perceptions of the Black Lives Matter movement’s legitimacy and effectiveness were not significantly altered by exposure to different protest tactics.
“The average person should take away two things,” Walker told PsyPost. “One, protest activities exist on a spectrum of disruption and violence. There are clear and measurable differences between a protest that involves property destruction or looting and a protest that disrupts without causing physical damage, like blocking a highway exit.”
“Second, more violent or disruptive protests do not always mean less support for a social movement. Indeed, we find that white Americans perceive Black Lives Matter protesters to be more politically effective when they engage in activities at the higher end of the protest disruption spectrum. So, the concern that disruptive protests weaken support for Black Lives Matter from their potential allies may be overblown. Additionally, the public can disagree with the tactics employed by protesters and still support the overall goals of their social movement.”
The researchers uncovered that whites’ reactions to the protests were influenced by their levels of racial resentment, a form of subtle racial bias that reflects negative feelings and beliefs about racial minorities (e.g., “It is really a matter of some people not trying hard enough; if Blacks would try harder they could be just as well off as whites”).
White respondents with lower levels of racial resentment were more likely to view disruptive protests negatively, while those with higher resentment did not significantly differentiate between peaceful and disruptive tactics in their evaluations.
“We were surprised to find that white conservatives are just as likely to disapprove of a peaceful marching protest as they are to disapprove of a protest that involves committing arson at a police station,” Walker explained. “Essentially, white conservatives make no distinction between activities at the low and high end of the protest disruption spectrum when it comes to Black Lives Matter protests.”
The new research provides valuable insights into public perceptions of protest tactics and the Black Lives Matter movement. However, “it’s important to note that this study specifically focused on protests affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement,” Walker said. “Our findings, particularly our results concerning race, may not apply to protests that do not center on racial issues.”
The study, “By Any Means Necessary? How Black and White Americans Evaluate Protest Tactics in Response to a Police Killing,” was published