“Macron Demission !”: Loss of significance generates violent extremism for the Yellow Vests through feelings of anomia

After over 2 months of demonstration, 12 casualties, 3142 injuries and more than 5000 custodies, the question of why the Yellow Vest (YV) protests turned so violent remains. In line with a Significance Quest perspective on violent extremism (Kruglanski & Orehek, 2011) the present contribution assessed whether the motivation to restore a sense of control and purpose could explain why French citizens engage in violent YV extremism. We hypothesized that personal loss of significance should predict intentions to display YV violence through increased feelings of anomia. Cross-sectional (Study 1, N = 776, general population) and experimental (Study 2, N = 511, undergraduates) mediation analyses corroborated this hypothesis independently of other known predictors of violent extremism. These results provide a first existential-motivational explanation of YV violence in France and highlight the key role of anomia as a predictor of violent extremism under Loss of Significance.