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In light of the fact that there are individuals who are in the habit of wrongly seeing the attitudes and deeds of peers and other community members as unlike their own when in fact they are not, there is a tendency to broadcast practices that are unhealthy and bad for the good of others. This phenomenon is called Pluralistic Ignorance and creates social, political and economic misunderstandings, which ensue in relation to problem behaviours which are commonly overrated. Often times, the alluded misunderstandings influence people into some habit or practice which may not be real and actually bad for them. This study therefore focussed on youth violence in Zimbabwe with particular attention on the influence of other youths who misperceive their actions in relation to others’ and seek to go beyond the rest.
There is pluralistic ignorance with respect to youth violence in Zimbabwe. This overestimation results in most reasonable violent youths engaging in more lethal violence than they would otherwise and may also inspire non-violent to adopt violence. In the history of Zimbabwe since year 2000, the political playing ground has been characterised by violence mainly driven by the youths from across the political divide. Preceding studies by Reeler et al (2001; 2009); RAU (2012; 2018); Dodo and Msorowegomo (2012) and Dodo et al (2014; 2019) are a testimony of the incidences of violence and their gravity. The same studies show the statistics of deaths, casualties and property destruction recorded throughout the country.
The trend in the Zimbabwean politics during the period under review is that during the period leading to a national programme or activity, opportunists engage on a massive drive to mislead the youths into believing that there may be some rewards out of some immoral and illegal activity. Because of the levels of joblessness and poverty, most youths fall for the tricks and get abused by a few political and economic elites. In 2000, some youths were put on the fore-front of the farm invasions (Sachikonye, 2004) to unleash violence before political elites amassed farming land (Reeler et al, 2001). The types of violence that were recorded included physical assaults, psychological harassment, arson, property destruction, confiscation, human rights abuses and deprivation of social, political and economic entitlements among others.
Similarly, in 2008, it was the youth who were sent on the front line to unleash violence following a Presidential election whose results was disputed (RAU, 2012). The elections were held amid a tense atmosphere politically and economically. However, after the election, nothing improved for the youths who had played a bigger role during the violent era. During the 1 August 2018 and the 14 January 2019 violence episodes in Zimbabwe (Kiwuwa, 2019; Chidza, 2019), it was the youths who were also sacrificed by some political authorities. The violence was primarily meant to sustain the incumbent government albeit with nothing for the youths.