The need to refocus on the group as the site of radicalization

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Abstract

The past decade has witnessed burgeoning efforts amongst governments to prevent people from developing a commitment to violent extremism (conceived of as a process of radicalization). These interventions acknowledge the importance of group processes yet in practice primarily focus on the idiosyncratic personal vulnerabilities that lead people to engage in violence. This conceptualization is problematic because it disconnects the individual from the group and fails to adequately address the role of group processes in radicalization. As an alternative, we advance a genuinely social psychological account of radicalization. We draw on recent developments in theory and research in psychological science to suggest that radicalization is fundamentally a group socialization process through which people develop identification with a set of norms – that may be violent or non-violent – through situated social interactions that leverage their shared perceptions and experiences. Our alternative provides a way of understanding shifts towards violent extremism that are caused by both the content (focal topics) and process of social interactions. This means that people’s radicalization to violence is inseparable from the social context in which their social interactions take place.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)327-352
Number of pages26
JournalPerspectives on Psychological Science
Volume15
Issue number2
Early online date31 Dec 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Mar 2020

Keywords

  • collective action
  • radicalization
  • social identity
  • social influence
  • social interaction

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Psychology

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