The interconnection of morality, values and legal nihilism with extremist attitudes of youth

Abstract

Past studies of extremist attitudes showed that along with such attitudes as nationalism, xenophobia, religious fanaticism, the tendency to justify the use of violence for political purposes is highly relevant to the problem of radicalisation. Extremist attitudes and the legitimisation of political violence can be associated with legal nihilism, as well as features of the person’s moral and value spheres. On a sample of 114 students using questionnaires of moral foundations (Jesse Graham et al.) and basic values (Shalom Schwartz), it was shown that binding moral foundations (loyalty, authority, purity) support extremist attitudes (by the questionnaire of Kirill Zlokazov) and the legitimation of political violence (by the scale of Sergey Yenikolopov and Nikolay Tsibul’skiy), while individualising moral foundations (care and fairness) and the self-transcendence values are opposed to them. Legal nihilism supports nationalist attitudes and the justification of violence in the political sphere, including the violence during political protests.