Across the country – and across the political spectrum – Americans see politically motivated violence as on the rise in the United States. But there is much less public consensus about the reasons for politically motivated violence in recent years. And there are wide partisan gaps over how much of a problem they think extremism from the left or the right is for the country.

Pew Research Center conducted this study to assess Americans’ views about politically motivated violence in the country.

For this analysis, we surveyed 3,445 U.S. adults from Sept. 22 to 28, 2025. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), a group of people recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses who have agreed to take surveys regularly. This kind of recruitment gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of selection.

Interviews were conducted either online or by telephone with a live interviewer. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education, presidential vote (among voters) and other factors. Read more about the ATP’s methodology.

Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline and the survey methodology.