Thy Brother’s Keeper: Attributions of Blame and Responsibility in the Jewish and Muslim Diaspora

Abstract

Abstract Political violence, ranging from terrorism to interstate conflict, have been a core concern of social scientists for decades. Yet, the study of these phenomena and their effects is often limited to the specific geographic area of their occurrence. We seek to understand how diaspora populations and linked groups to international actors are affected by their geopolitical actions. Namely, considered blameworthy for or responsible to speak out against the actions of states and/or transnational actors with whom they are often linked? We contend that the reporting of salient events associated with a particularly violent conflict, are likely to increase both blame and responsibility to speak out of groups associated with the perceived attacker. We test our hypotheses through three waves of survey experiments in the United States from 2022 to 2024. While support for our hypotheses is mixed, the clearest evidence for our expected effects appears only in the pre-conflict wave, prior to the October 7 attack and the subsequent war in Gaza. In the later wartime waves, these effects largely dissipate, suggesting that in a media environment already saturated with conflict reporting, exposure to a single additional conflict report may have limited marginal impact. More broadly, we find that blame and responsibility to speak function as distinct phenomenon targeting groups associated with international actors. Additionally, our work shows that those on the ideological right are much more likely to blame groups for the actions of associated international actors in conflict.