Neighborhood-Based Relative Deprivation and Willingness to Protest the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election

The 2020 presidential election presented a unique opportunity to assess U.S. voters’ willingness to engage in election-oriented collective action. Before the November 2020 election, we surveyed 293 self-reported Trump voters and 370 self-reported Biden voters. Two weeks after the election, at a time when some Trump supporters were mobilizing to “take America back,” we invited the same participants to complete a second survey. Before the election, Biden voters reported stronger interest in election-related collective action than Trump voters. After the election, Trump voters responded to the election results by expressing greater interest in election-related collective action compared to Biden voters. Both before and after the election, resentment and anger about the perceived deprivation of one’s neighborhood most strongly predicted collective action among Biden voters. For Trump voters, before the election, the strongest predictor of collective action was anxiety about neighborhood deprivation. The perceived legitimacy of the election emerged as the strongest predictor of collective action for Trump voters after the election. Our findings cohere with relative deprivation theories to suggest that neighborhood-based economic comparisons can help make sense of people’s willingness to protest election outcomes when political messages focus on traditional economic narratives. Trump’s election illegitimacy narrative may have supplanted local economic concerns after the election.