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Relative Poverty, Perceived Violence, and Support for Militant Politics: Evidence from Pakistan

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  • Fair, C. Christine
  • Littman, Rebecca
  • Malhotra, Neil
  • Shapiro, Jacob N.

Abstract

Challenging conventional wisdom, previous research in South Asia and the Middle East has shown that poverty and exposure to violence are negatively correlated with support for militant organizations. Existing studies, however, provide evidence consistent with two potential mechanisms underlying these relationships: (1) the direct effects of poverty and violence on attitudes toward militant groups and (2) the psychological effects of perceptions of poverty and violence on attitudes. Isolating whether the psychological mechanism is an important one is critical for building theories of mass responses to political violence. We conducted a series of original, large-scale survey experiments in Pakistan (n=16,279) in which we randomly manipulated perceptions of both poverty and violence before measuring support for militant organizations. We find evidence that psychological perceptions do in part explain why the poor seem to be less supportive of militant political groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Fair, C. Christine & Littman, Rebecca & Malhotra, Neil & Shapiro, Jacob N., 2018. "Relative Poverty, Perceived Violence, and Support for Militant Politics: Evidence from Pakistan," Political Science Research and Methods, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 57-81, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:pscirm:v:6:y:2018:i:01:p:57-81_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Víctor Meseguer-Sánchez & Gabriel López-Martínez & Valentín Molina-Moreno & Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña, 2020. "The Role of Women in a Family Economy. A Bibliometric Analysis in Contexts of Poverty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-23, December.
    2. Marco Alfano & Joseph-Simon Görlach, 2023. "Terrorism, Media Coverage, and Education: Evidence from al-Shabaab Attacks in Kenya," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 727-763.
    3. Zahid Shahab Ahmed & Farooq Yousaf & Khan Zeb, 2018. "Socio-economic and Political Determinants of Terrorism in Pakistan," International Studies, , vol. 55(2), pages 130-145, April.

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