Figure 1 |. Schematic of an individual trial from the novel functional MRI task that assessed beliefs about violence that was either congruent or incongruent with participants’ views.

After baseline fixation, participants saw a text description of a sociopolitical issue purportedly motivating a violent protest (e.g., illegal immigration). This issue was paired with either a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to indicate the protestors’ support or opposition. Next, after jittered fixation, participants saw a photograph ostensibly depicting the violent protest. Following an additional period of jittered fixation, participants then indicated the appropriateness of the violence in the photograph.