Political extremism, group membership and personality traits: who accepts violence? / Extremismo político, pertenencia al grupo y rasgos de personalidad: ¿Quién acepta la violencia?

Abstract

Identity fusion theory proposed that fused individuals have a visceral feeling of oneness with the group and this leads them to engage in radical, violent pro-group behaviours. Other approaches to group extremism link acceptance of violence to right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO). We extended previous research on fusion in three ways. First, by exploring if identity fusion is a significant predictor of the willingness to fight for a group, when controlling for group identification, left-wing authoritarianism (LWA), RWA and SDO. Secondly, we controlled for a membership in a group known for radical action directed at out-groups, namely football hooligans. Finally, we added a second outcome variable, which is the acceptance of violent change of the current social system. The participants were self-described football hooligans (N = 24) and undergraduate students (N = 155). Regression analyses revealed that the strongest predictor of willingness to defend in-group was identity fusion, with RWA and group identification significant as well. RWA and LWA emerged as the strongest predictors of acceptance of violent change. The effect of group membership wasn’t significant.

Two Sexes, Two Genders Only: Measuring Attitudes toward Transgender Individuals in Poland

“…These results are consistent with a three-component model of gender nonconformity prejudice (Nagoshi et al 2008), which stresses social conventionalism as the key factor of prejudice toward gender nonconformists. Among two forms of homonegativity, it is the old-fashioned one that expresses adherence to rigid conventional norms and values, including religious conviction about acceptable sexual and gender behaviors; it was established earlier that social conventionalism is related to a higher propensity for and acceptance of aggression in interpersonal and social relationships (Benjamin 2016;Besta et al 2015).…”

Independent and Interdependent? Agentic and Communal? Self-construals of People Fused with a Group

“…When country was used as the reference group in study 1, the interaction between independent and agentic and interdependent and communal self-construals was not statistically significantly related to identity fusion. One explanation for this finding is that one's relation with one's country might also depend on different conditions, such as political views and ideology (e.g., the link between authoritarianism and fusion with country; see Besta et al, 2015). Moreover, country was the most abstract entity I included as a reference group, and the other groups were relational.…”

“…In relation to these principles, previous studies have shown that the state of identity fusion is strongly related to progroup behavior, as measured by charitable donations (Swann, Gómez, Huici, Morales, & Hixon, 2010) and by willingness to defend in-group members and be self-sacrificial for their good among students and adults from several countries Besta, Szulc, & Jaśkiewicz, 2015;Gómez et al, 2011a;Swann et al, 2014) and members of communities with links to militant jihad (Atran, Sheikh, & Gómez, 2014). Even ostracism increases endorsement of extreme progroup behavior for the in group among fused persons (Gómez, Morales, Hart, Vázquez, & Swann, 2011b).…”

Trust in the source of received information as a factor related to public perception of shale gas drilling

“…The identity fusion measure was a good predictor of pro-group behaviors in previous studies (e.g. Besta, Szulc, & Jaśkiewicz, 2015;Swann, Gómez, Huici, Morales, & Hixon, 2010;see Swann & Buhrmester, 2015 for overview). Thus we controlled for group adherence by including this measure.…”