Christian nationalism, apocalypticism, outgroup hate, and support for violent extremism

Scholars have found that Americans subscribing to Christian nationalist beliefs are more likely to endorse political violence. In this study I examine the role that apocalypticism – the belief that the United States is doomed to imminent collapse due to political, economic, socio-cultural, demographic, environmental, or religious causes – plays in explaining the link between Christian nationalism and support for political violence. Specifically, I theorize that Christian nationalists are more likely to hold apocalyptic outlooks and that these, in turn, produce feelings of threat that reinforce negative attitudes toward social outgroups. Hatred of outgroups prompts Christian nationalists to normalize political violence. I employ a serial mediation analysis on an original survey of 1300 white American subjects and find that close to 70% of the effects of Christian nationalist beliefs on support for political violence are mediated through apocalypticism and its effects on attitudes toward outgroups.