Group membership and radicalization: A cross-national investigation of collective self-esteem underlying extremism

Abstract

Uncertainty, perceived threats, and a generally insecure life attachment have been associated with endorsement of extremism. Furthermore, salient identification with a group can influence radicalized ways of addressing insecure life attachment through an established and sometimes extreme worldview and ideology. In the present study, we replicated the finding that an insecure life attachment is associated with a higher degree of extremism endorsement. Furthermore, we found similarities and differences in how this association was influenced by various aspects of group membership across dissimilar contexts and among majority and minority groups (e.g., Muslims and non-Muslims) from Denmark ( n = 223), India ( n = 147), and the United Kingdom ( n = 225). Consequently, our results indicate that general social psychological processes underlie radicalization and that different aspects of collective self-esteem can be central promoting or mitigating factors. Overall, our findings suggest an important interplay among life attachment, collective self-esteem, and extremism across Western and non-Western majority and minority groups.

The Great Replacement Conspiracy: How the Perceived Ousting of Whites Can Evoke Violent Extremism and Islamophobia

“…Research also supports the link between symbolic and realistic threat perceptions and endorsement of violence specifically (Obaidi et al, 2018a;Ozer et al, 2020).…”

Defining and Detecting Toxicity on Social Media: Context and Knowledge are Key

“…Social network membership is therefore an important feature in the detection of toxicity. Second, the promise of group membership and the threat of exclusion is a known factor in the radicalization effort [22], of particular appeal to adolescent recruits.…”

Radicalization and violent extremism: Perspectives from research on group processes and intergroup relations

“…A final common insight from these studies lies in the use of indicators of radicalization and violent extremism that do not suffer from some of the limitations of a strict focus on actual engagement in violence, for example a shrinking of the research participant pool to those who were previously or currently engaged in extremism. One relevant indicator, or target behavior, is ideological change towards more extreme ideas (Međedović et al, 2020; Orazani et al, 2020) or more extreme identities (Bélanger et al, 2020; Ozer et al, 2020). The most promising avenue, however, may lie in a focus on intentions to engage in radical or violent extremist behavior.…”

“…Renström et al (2020) document in four studies ( N = 104, 308, 1,041, and 40) that the aversive experience of social exclusion of people sensitive to rejection can lead them to embrace radical political groups, which again drives extreme behavior on behalf of that group. A possible accelerator of this is explored in three studies ( N = 223, 147, and 225) by Ozer et al (2020), which show that an uncertain attachment to ordinary daily life is associated with stronger identification with extreme groups and stronger endorsement of extremism.…”