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Like the intensity of 9/11 and the Virginia Tech shooting, today marks an event likely to be vivid enough to be seared in my mind for a lifetime. With the storming of the U.S. Capitol today by Trump-supporting White terrorists, we witness the culmination of more than four years of the “Trump Effect”: The shift in our American norms to permit the expression of prejudiced rhetoric, and, ultimately, discriminatory violence.
Much has been written about the psychology of Trump, from concerns about narcissism to professional mental health providers arguing he is unfit to serve as president. I have contributed to this compilation, writing in April 2020 predicting events such as those of today:
“Return to Trump’s authoritarian aggression. He pridefully punches back. Always. And a contingent of his supporters can do the same when they feel threatened, resentful, or hateful. Should Trump lose the election…the worst of our socio-political divide is yet to come.” Such inciting of violence by Trump was foreseeable based on social science informing our understanding of the combination of:
- his authoritarian and narcissistic traits.
- his demonstrated history of prejudice and conspiracy-theory mongering.
- the noted shift in social norms reinforcing expressed hate and prejudice.
The threat of Trump-inspired violence did not end today. One empirical fact begs unequivocally true: The 25th Amendment must be invoked now. The primary reason I make this argument is that a failure to do so is likely to incur the spread of violence through modeling and contagion.
In short I argue, based on decades of social science research, to cut off the head of the snake now. Immediately. Since the classic Bandura experiments demonstrating children mimic aggressive adult models, the study of aggression and violence has captivated social scientists and popular culture alike. One thing is clear from decades of social-cognitive science that has followed: Violence begets violence through observing people committing violence and being rewarded for it. Trump freely incites violence and goes unpunished, only gaining popularity and support. Trump supporters storm a federal building, go unpunished by the law, and the threat for continued violence spreads.
A second concern underscoring the need for the 25th Amendment is the possibility of contagion. Building on the social science of aggression, we can understand contagion as the clustered spread of violent behavior through modeling processes. An over-simplification of contagion might have us think about it as the spread of violence through observing high-intensity violent events (e.g., a mass shooting, coverage of a suicide) and repeating them for the sake of relief, reward, or other reinforcement. Violence can spread within small peer groups, communities, cities, and even a country or culture. Contagion has been studied or applied to a variety of violence-related topics such as self-harm and gun violence.
Conditions are ripe now for contagion. Trump-inspired terrorists go unpunished and, in many instances, gain fame and media attention, among other reinforcers. Trump continues his inciting of the violence even as his social media accounts are now being partially restricted. Until the top end of the contagion spread is contained, followed by responsible media coverage of the violent events, we are under a clear and present threat of contagious Trump-inspired violence.
Failure to invoke the 25th Amendment is a failure in social responsibility, and one contrary to what we know about the likelihood of the spread of continued violence and the vast impacts of such violence on the mental, physical, economic, and social well-being of those affected.
The time is now for national political leadership. Invoke the 25th amendment.
