Title
The Enthymemes of Supporting President Trump: Explaining the Association Between Structural Location, Supporting the President, and Agreeing With Online Extremism
Description
Does hateful rhetoric appeal to supporters of President Trump? Prior studies link sexism, racism, Islamophobia, anti-immigrant sentiment, and intolerant forms of Christianity to supporting or voting for President Trump. We extend this literature by examining whether individuals who approve of President Trump’s job performance are more accepting of the hateful rhetoric and imagery they encounter online. We do so using online survey data (N = 465) of youth and young adults collected in December 2017. Building on previous theoretical explanations of participating in online hate that utilize routine activity theory and social learning–social structure theory, we argue that support for President Trump is a result of the “politics of status,” and support for the President thus represents an enthymeme. Our key finding is that agreement with online hate material is indeed positively associated with support for the President. Additionally, we find that one’s differential location in the social structure, online and off-line social bonds, and attitudes toward norm violations are associated with agreement with online extremist content.
Publication Date
1-1-2020
Publisher
figshare SAGE Publications
DOI
10.25384/sage.c.4857006.v1
Document Type
Data Set
Recommended Citation
Bernatzky, Colin; Restifo, Salvatore J.; Costello, Matthew; Hawdon, James (2020), "The Enthymemes of Supporting President Trump: Explaining the Association Between Structural Location, Supporting the President, and Agreeing With Online Extremism", figshare SAGE Publications, doi: 10.25384/sage.c.4857006.v1
https://doi.org/10.25384/sage.c.4857006.v1
Identifier
10.25384/sage.c.4857006.v1
Embargo Date
1-1-2020