Sacred Values, Willingness to Sacrifice, and Accountability for the Capitol Insurrection: Exploring How Deeply and Why Americans Hold Their January 6-Related Views
Despite the national unity that initially followed the January 6 Capitol insurrection, conversations surrounding the attack quickly became politicized and the subject of heated disinformation as polarized narratives about “what happened” entrenched.
Developing a shared narrative of and ensuring accountability for political violence is critical for its non-recurrence. Over Zero, in partnership with New America’s New Models of Policy Change Initiative and Protect Democracy, conducted research to: 1) better understand how Americans are thinking about the events of January 6th, and 2) identify alternative inroads for engaging cross-partisan Americans in conversations surrounding January 6 and related accountability efforts. .
Amid the Select Committee’s subpoena to Donald Trump and continued conversations on accountability for January 6, we are sharing a recent report: Sacred Values, Willingness to Sacrifice, and Accountability for the Capitol Insurrection: Exploring How Deeply and Why Americans Hold Their January 6-Related Views.
Over 60% of our nationally-representative sample sacralized stances on accountability or responsibility–including Donald Trump’s perceived lack of responsibility–for January 6. Sacred values–or sacralized stances–are strong, absolutist views or moral imperatives that are acted on as a duty or obligation rather than a choice. Engaging sacralized stances the way we would traditional value or policy positions can backfire, causing value-holders to disengage from further conversations.
These findings have profound implications for how we communicate around January 6 and develop the shared narrative needed to prevent its recurrence.
Not all communications efforts will seek to engage these groups. Still, understanding whether, why, and among whom January 6 stances are sacralized will benefit stakeholders’ contextual awareness and position them to better prepare for any blowback that their communications may have among Americans.
Our first report explored Americans’ attitudes toward accountability efforts, specifically examining how deeply and why Americans hold their views on accountability for the Capitol attack. In sum, Americans hold strong and divergent views toward January 6 and related accountability initiatives. Even so, we identified a segment of conservatives–“accountability-minded conservatives”–who are amenable to the Select Committee and accountability efforts more broadly. This segment complicates the narrative that views toward accountability fall strictly along partisan lines.
For additional information on this project, please contact Laura Livingston (laura@projectoverzero.org) or Nichole Argo (nichole@projectoverzero.org).
Publications:
Sacred Values, Willingness to Sacrifice, and Accountability for the Capitol Insurrection: Exploring How Deeply and Why Americans Hold Their January 6-Related Views (October 2022)
Opportunities for Accountability-Related Conversations: Understanding Americans’ Views toward January 6 (June 2022)