Cass R. Sunstein, Columnist

Trump and the Capitol Mob: The Science of Unleashing

Behavioral research helps show how this president brought simmering private resentments to a public boil.

January 12, 2021 at 2:30 PM UTC

Corrected

January 13, 2021 at 10:36 AM UTC

Cass R. Sunstein is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is the author of “The Cost-Benefit Revolution” and a co-author of “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness.”

Unleashed.
Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

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Jan. 6, 2021 is a day that should live in infamy — a day on which the fundamental institutions of the U.S. were suddenly and deliberately attacked.

It will take a long time to understand fully why political passion crossed the line into an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, but social science research illuminates part of the picture. Long-standing feelings of rage, humiliation, racism and hatred did not explode spontaneously. They were fueled and unleashed, above all by President Donald Trump. That’s what turned those feelings into action.