Political Extremism Research Articles

Countering Holocaust Trivialization: How Educational Resources Support Teachers in the Context of Political Extremism

In this study, we used Terrance L. Furin’s concept of transformational countering to examine six Holocaust education resources designed to address Holocaust trivialization and antisemitism. While academic comparisons are useful to helping students understand challenging content, superficial Holocaust analogies for political purposes are identified as Holocaust trivialization. Given that the current context consists of a growing white nationalist movement characterized by authoritarianism, antisemitism, and conspiracy theories, we enter the study understanding that Holocaust trivialization and far-right extremism must be understood together. We, therefore, examined the type of support teachers receive from Holocaust and human rights organizations in countering extremism and Holocaust trivialization. After analyzing the six resources, our findings demonstrate that resources produced to counter Holocaust trivialization become quickly outdated given the rapid evolution of extremism. Also, findings indicate that teachers receive stronger support in countering extremism and Holocaust trivialization from organizations that focus broadly on supporting human rights compared to the organizations that focus exclusively on Holocaust education.

Analyzing violent attacker texts: examining ideologies through machine learning-assisted topic modeling

ABSTRACT The rise in extremist violence is a global concern, prompting advancements in threat assessment. This study applies machine learning to dissect publicly available texts from violent attackers with white supremacist, incel, and political extremist ideologies, as well as from those driven by personal grievances. Through natural language processing, the research identifies specific linguistic patterns and themes inherent to each group and explores the intersections among them. It uncovers shared narratives of disenfranchisement and aggression alongside unique ideological signifiers. Additionally, it identifies themes unique to each group, offering a clear thematic distinction between ideologies. These insights contribute to a more accurate identification of radicalization indicators, supporting the development of intervention strategies tailored to the ideological nuances of each group. Enhanced threat assessment tools informed by this research can improve the precision of prevention efforts by law enforcement and mental health professionals, reflecting the complex realities of extremist motivations and actions.

The elephant in the room? Considerations of politics among older adult daters

AbstractA sharply polarized political climate may increase the importance single adults place on politics in partner selection. While the importance of politics in dating decisions is not surprising in light of homophily, less is known about how older adults consider political differences in partnering. We answer two questions about older daters and politics: (1) How do older adult daters consider potential partners' political views? and (2) How do perceptions of rising political polarization shape these preferences? We use interview data with 67 adults (aged 55–92) from the Romance and Dating in Later Life study, conducted in Phoenix, AZ, in 2022–2023. Findings show politics are highly salient in partner selection across gender, class, and ideology, suggesting older singles place substantial importance on political views when choosing partners. Many older singles prioritize shared beliefs, while others practice open‐mindedness. Extremist politics, particularly right‐leaning, are viewed as a significant barrier to dating. This study demonstrates how older daters consider political beliefs in dating decisions, particularly considering perceptions of rising polarization. This contributes to research highlighting the role of political ideology in shaping dating decisions by extending the research to include explicit study of mid‐ and late‐life adults, whose dating experiences differ from young adult singles.

The individual and ecological characteristics of parental COVID-19 vaccination decisions

Vaccination is a highly effective method to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate severe disease. In Germany, adult vaccination rates are relatively high at 85.5%, but rates are significantly lower for adolescents (69.6%) and children (20.0%). This discrepancy indicates that not all vaccinated parents choose to vaccinate their children. Analyzing data from a January 2022 online survey of 1,819 parents with children and adolescents, we explore the socio-economic factors influencing parents’ willingness to vaccinate themselves and their children. Our results show that individuals who vote for either side of the political extremes are less likely to vaccinate their children. This pattern is particularly strong for voters on the far right. In addition, we find that better educated parents are more likely to vaccinate both themselves and their children. Parents who vaccinate both themselves and their children demonstrate greater confidence in the vaccine’s effectiveness, while those who vaccinate only themselves are often motivated by a desire to regain personal freedoms. These insights highlight the need for targeted public health strategies to address specific concerns and improve vaccination rates among children and adolescents.

Концептуальные аспекты противодействия электоральному экстремизму

Manifestation of extremism elements in the course of preparation for and holding of elections and referendums can trigger destructive consequences irreversible for the state and society: from social upheavals and "orange revolutions" to disruption of the constitutional order and forced seizure of power. The electoral system of any civilized state not only creates conditions for the democratic transition of power in accordance with the will of the people but is also aimed at maintaining stability and law and order in complicated conditions of the transitional electoral cycle including combating manifestations of extremism in the course of electoral procedures and prevention of election of extremists to positions of authority. Extremism that is most aggressively, strongly and dangerously manifested in electoral procedures requires government authorities to take precise and coordinated action to assure and protect electoral rights and freedoms of citizens from illegal encroachments. Legally consolidated authorities and functions of election organizers in the extremism combating issue give an opportunity to suggest a new form of manifestation of political extremism during preparation for and holding of elections and referendums, which is electoral extremism. In this publication, the author makes an attempt at conceptual justification of electoral extremism and giving an author’s definition thereof for the purpose of further analysis of ways of combating electoral extremism to assure free elections and electoral sovereignty of the state from encroachments of political radicals who are often sponsored by intelligence services of hostile foreign states.

Slicing the gordian knot of political extremism: Issues and potential solutions regarding its conceptualization and terminology

The main goal of the present work is to highlight the problems surrounding the current definition of political extremism and the misuse of this and other related terms like radicalism and radicalization. It is argued that these issues generate confusion and obscure research efforts regarding these phenomena. We identify four major problems regarding the terminology used to describe the phenomenon of political extremism: a polysemy problem, an inadequate equivalence between the terms extremism and radicalism, uncertainty about the role of violence in defining political extremism, and the fact that the term ‘radicalization’ is more closely associated with extremists rather than radicals. We describe how these problems affect both research on extremism and hinder its application and we propose potential solutions for such issues.

Social Stigma and COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal in France

Context: In 2021, French health authorities strongly promoted vaccination against COVID-19. The authors assumed that refusing this vaccine became a stigma, and they investigated potential public stigma toward unvaccinated people among the French population. Methods: A representative sample of the French adult population (N = 2,015) completed an online questionnaire in September 2021. The authors focused on participants who were already vaccinated against COVID-19 or intended to get vaccinated (N = 1,742). A cluster analysis was used to obtain contrasted attitudinal profiles, and the authors investigated associated factors with logistic regressions. Findings: Regarding attitudes toward unvaccinated people, a majority of respondents supported several pejorative statements, and a significant minority also endorsed social rejection attitudes. The authors found four contrasting attitudinal profiles: moral condemnation only (32% of respondents), full stigma (26%), no stigma (26%), and stigma rejection (16%). Early vaccination, civic motives for it, faith in science, rejection of political extremes, and being aged 65 or older were the main factors associated with stigmatizing attitudes toward unvaccinated people. Conclusions: The authors found some evidence of stigmatization toward unvaccinated people, but further research is needed, especially to investigate perceived stigmatization among them. The authors discuss their results with reference to the concept of “folk devils” and from a public health perspective.

Liberal-conservative asymmetries in anti-democratic tendencies are partly explained by psychological differences in a nationally representative U.S. sample

Based on theory and research in political psychology, we hypothesized that liberal-conservative differences in right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and political system justification would contribute to asymmetries in anti-democratic tendencies. These hypotheses were tested in a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults (N = 1557). Results revealed that conservatives were less supportive of political equality and legal rights and guarantees and more willing to defect from democratic “rules of the game” and vote for anti-democratic candidates, even after adjusting for political extremism. Mediational analyses suggested that conservatives’ anti-democratic tendencies were partially attributable to higher levels of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation. Conservatives also scored higher in political system justification, which was associated with support for free speech and mitigated anti-democratic tendencies. Democrats and Republicans who approved January 6, 2021, insurrectionists were more conservative and higher in right-wing authoritarianism than those who did not. Implications for social psychology and society are discussed.

New and emerging perspectives for technology assessment: Malevolent creativity and civil security

The characteristics of new technologies can cause significant harm to society. This does not only apply to unintended consequences, but even more so when the technologies are used for malicious purposes. The latter can be observed in the domain of civil security. Here, negative developments such as social polarization, increasing radicalization, and democratic regression alongside a deteriorating security situation are increasingly associated with technological innovation and malevolent creativity. As society becomes more and more aware of such correlations, technology assessment is called upon to provide orientation knowledge. This requires appropriate approaches and knowledge tools to assess the potential role of technology in relation to radicalization and political extremism.

Malevolent creativity and civil security: The ambivalence of emergent technologies

The characteristics of new technologies can cause significant harm to society. This does not only apply to unintended consequences, but even more so when the technologies are used for malicious purposes. The latter can be observed in the domain of civil security. Here, negative developments such as social polarization, increasing radicalization, and democratic regression alongside a deteriorating security situation are increasingly associated with technological innovation and malevolent creativity. As society becomes more and more aware of such correlations, technology assessment is called upon to provide orientation knowledge. This requires appropriate approaches and knowledge tools to assess the potential role of technology in relation to radicalization and political extremism.

Ambivalent attitudes promote support for extreme political actions.

Political extremism varies across people and contexts, but which beliefs will a person support through extreme actions? We propose that ambivalent attitudes, despite reducing normative political actions like voting, increase support for extreme political actions. We demonstrate this hypothesized reversal using dozens of measures across six studies (N = 13,055). The effect was robust to relevant covariates and numerous methodological variations and was magnified when people's attitudinal or ideological positions were more polarized. It appears to occur because being conflicted about political issues can feel psychologically uncomfortable, making extreme actions more appealing. Notably, this emerged when people thought ambivalence was justified, whereas leading them to consider ambivalence unjustified suppressed the effect, suggesting that ambivalent people are coping with but not necessarily trying to reduce their ambivalence. These results highlight the interplay of affective and cognitive influences in extreme behavior, showing that beliefs people feel justifiably conflicted about can promote extremism.

Intersubject correlations in reward and mentalizing brain circuits separately predict persuasiveness of two types of ISIS video propaganda

The Islamist group ISIS has been particularly successful at recruiting Westerners as terrorists. A hypothesized explanation is their simultaneous use of two types of propaganda: Heroic narratives, emphasizing individual glory, alongside Social narratives, which emphasize oppression against Islamic communities. In the current study, functional MRI was used to measure brain responses to short ISIS propaganda videos distributed online. Participants were shown 4 Heroic and 4 Social videos categorized as such by another independent group of subjects. Persuasiveness was measured using post-scan predictions of recruitment effectiveness. Inter-subject correlation (ISC) was used to measure commonality of brain activity time courses across individuals. ISCs in ventral striatum predicted rated persuasiveness for Heroic videos, while ISCs in mentalizing and default networks, especially in dmPFC, predicted rated persuasiveness for Social videos. This work builds on past findings that engagement of the reward circuit and of mentalizing brain regions predicts preferences and persuasion. The observed dissociation as a function of stimulus type is novel, as is the finding that intersubject synchrony in ventral striatum predicts rated persuasiveness. These exploratory results identify possible neural mechanisms by which political extremists successfully recruit prospective members and specifically support the hypothesized distinction between Heroic and Social narratives for ISIS propaganda.

Method for Constructing Neural Network Means for Recognizing Scenes of Political Extremism in Graphic Materials of Online Social Networks

Countering the spread of calls for political extremism through graphic content on online social networks is becoming an increasingly pressing problem that requires the development of new technological solutions, since traditional approaches to countering are based on the results of recognizing destructive content only in text messages. Since in modern conditions neural network tools for analyzing graphic information are considered the most effective, it is assumed that it is advisable to use such tools for analyzing images and video materials in online social networks, taking into account the need to adapt them to the expected conditions of use, which are determined by the wide variability in the size of graphic content, the presence of typical interference, limited computing resources of recognition tools. Using this thesis, a method has been proposed that makes it possible to implement the construction of neural network recognition tools adapted to the specified conditions. For recognition, the author's neural network model was used, which, due to the reasonable determination of the architectural parameters of the low-resource convolutional neural network of the MobileNetV2 type and the recurrent neural network of the LSTM type, which makes up its structure, ensures high accuracy of recognition of scenes of political extremism both in static images and in video materials under limited computing conditions resources. A mechanism was used to adapt the input field of the neural network model to the variability of the size of graphic resources, which provides for scaling within acceptable limits of the input graphic resource and, if necessary, filling the input field with zeros. Levelling out typical noise is ensured by using advanced solutions in the method for correcting brightness, contrast and eliminating blur of local areas in images of online social networks. Neural network tools developed on the basis of the proposed method for recognizing scenes of political extremism in graphic materials of online social networks demonstrate recognition accuracy at the level of the most well-known neural network models, while ensuring a reduction in resource intensity by more than 10 times. This allows the use of less powerful equipment, increases the speed of content analysis, and also opens up prospects for the development of easily scalable recognition tools, which ultimately ensures an increase in security and a reduction in the spread of extremist content on online social networks. It is advisable to correlate the paths for further research with the introduction of the Attention mechanism into the neural network model used in the method, which will make it possible to increase the efficiency of neural network analysis of video materials.

Filter Bubbles and the Unfeeling: How AI for Social Media Can Foster Extremism and Polarization

Social media have undoubtedly changed our ways of living. Their presence concerns an increasing number of users (over 4,74 billion) and pervasively expands in the most diverse areas of human life. Marketing, education, news, data, and sociality are just a few of the many areas in which social media play now a central role. Recently, some attention toward the link between social media and political participation has emerged. Works in the field of artificial intelligence have already pointed out that there is a close link between the use of machine learning algorithms in social media and possible epistemic isolation, which could lead to political radicalization. The idea supporting this paper is that artificial intelligence for social media can actively put users’ deliberative capacity at risk and foster political extremism. To prove these claims, I proceed along two lines of inquiry. First, I focus on filter bubbles, namely the result of selections made by algorithms that recommend contents that meet users’ expectations and opinions. To analyze this phenomenon, I refer to the Deweyan model of experience. Second, I connect the filter bubbles problem to the Deweyan idea of deliberative and participatory democracy and Nussbaum’s concept of political compassion. The purpose of this paper is to provide a philosophical foundation that can both (1) effectively serve as a method for analyzing machine learning algorithms and their potential problems in relation to political extremism, and (2) be adopted as a standard to counter the danger of extremism associated with social media experience.

Political Extremism and Its Implications: An Inquiry into Violence, Struggle, and Self-Sacrifice

This research paper draws upon English novelist George Orwell’s observations on human proclivities toward struggle and self-sacrifice, as seen in his criticism of “Mein Kampf”, and uses them to explore the complex nature of political extremism. By analyzing the evolution of the political narrative since the 1970s, from economic to cultural issues, it investigates the foundations of extreme nationalism within contemporary liberal democracies. In order to show the features and motives of this phenomenon, the study observes several European far-right groups through the lens of extreme nationalism, uncovering similar themes of anti-globalization, immigration, and European Union views. It delves further into the examination of human beings by taking a closer look at the way culture shaped our development as a species and the fundamental urge for identification and belonging, providing insights into the psychological underpinnings of extreme beliefs and behavior. It also looks at the foundations of group violence, discussing it as a morally motivated behavior meant to maintain and preserve social ties and the concept of struggle as behavioral mechanisms exploited by extreme nationalists. To thoroughly assess the validity of Orwell’s ideas, the research combines the theoretical framework with a case study of the contemporary tendencies towards extremism in the U.S. political system. The analysis leads to the conclusion that George Orwell’s findings that the attractiveness of political extremism has its roots in basic features of human nature are still applicable in modern democratic societies.

Exploring Conspiracist Populism in Power: The Case of Kais Saied in Tunisia

The aim of this paper is to conduct a literature review of the existing nexus between conspiracy theories and populist politics. Most of the literature considering the political nature of conspiracy theories has focused mainly on individual action and electoral choices, hence setting aside the agency of political leaders that deliberately resort to these tales to mobilise supporters. On the contrary, conspiracy theories are increasingly moving away from extremist politics to enter the institutional political arena and become part and parcel of the political narratives and strategies of institutional figures. Against this backdrop, the present work offers a new approach to investigate the connection between populist conspiracy theories and conspiracist populism and attempts to explain how conspiracist populism works and what its potential impact on contemporary democracies is. The analysis of the literature offers some theoretical insights to explore the specific case of the presidency of Kais Saied in Tunisia, which has been labelled as a form of constitutional populism integrating conspiracy theories. The inquiry on the Tunisian case demonstrates that conspiracy theories can represent both tactics and framings for populists in power, and, if democratic checks and balances are weak enough, they can lead to the erosion of democracy itself.

Objectivity vs affect: how competing forms of legitimacy can polarize public debate in data-driven public consultation

ABSTRACT How do data and objectivity become politicized? How do processes intended to include citizen voices instead push them into social media that intensify negative expression? This paper examines the possibility and limits of ‘agonistic data practices’ (Crooks & Currie, 2021) examining how data-driven consultation practices create competing forms of legitimacy for quantifiable knowledge and affective lived experience. Drawing on a two-year study of a private Facebook group self-presenting as a supportive space for working-class people critical of the development of ‘low-traffic neighbourhoods’ (LTNs), the paper reveals how the dynamics of ‘affective polarization’ associated the use of data with elite and exclusionary politics. Participants addressed this by framing their online contributions as ‘vernacular data’ and also by associating numerical data with exclusion and inequality. Over time the strong statements of feeling began to support content of a conspiratorial nature, reflected at the social level of discourse in the broader media environment where stories of strong feeling gain legitimacy in right-wing sources. The paper concludes that ideologies of dataism and practices of datafication may create conditions for political extremism to develop when the potential conditions of ‘agonistic data practices’ are not met, and that consultation processes must avoid overly valorizing data and calculable knowledge if they wish to retain democratic accountability.

Socializing the political: rethinking filter bubbles and social media with Hannah Arendt

It is often claimed that social media accelerate political extremism by employing personalization algorithms that filter users into groups with homogenous beliefs. While an intuitive position, recent research has shown that social media users exhibit self-filtering tendencies. In this paper, I apply Hannah Arendt’s theory of political judgment to hypothesize a cause for self-filtering on social media. According to Arendt, a crucial step in political judgment is the imagination of a general standpoint of distinct yet equal perspectives, against which individuals compare their own judgments in order to test their defensibility. I argue that social media inhibit this step by gamifying the pursuit of social status, which encourages users to consider the perspectives of others not for the sake of a general standpoint but for the sake of improving their social status, resulting in self-filtering. Consequently, ameliorating political extremism on social media requires not just reforming the algorithms that deliver content to users, but the interfaces on which users present their social identities.

Measuring Implicit Political Extremism through Implicit Association Tests

Abstract We develop the first implicit association test (IAT) to measure general implicit extremist attitudes in Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. We find that implicit extremist attitudes are positively but weakly correlated with existing explicit measures. This indicates that implicit measures capture different parts of the population, for example, cases in which associations are based on automated cognitive processes instead of conscious thought. Further results show that particularly the higher-educated and nonreligious respondents score higher on the implicit than on the explicit extremism measures. Our results highlight the importance of studying implicit attitudes of political extremism. We further provide novel insights into how to develop IATs for abstract concepts such as democracy and extremism, for the study of which we cannot use readily available images or concepts.

BUDAYA POLITIK MATANG SEJAHTERA: SUATU ANALISIS

Politics is a crucial necessity in human lives. It holds the platform to systematically construct and organize our society and norms. Humans generally cannot co-exist with each other without an organized politics system. Ironically, politics is always misconstrued as dirty, twisted, cunning, and misleading specifically when it involves parties in politics. This mentality is eventually indoctrinated and became part of the culture among the Malaysian. Evidently, any discussion regarding politics usually becomes a sensitive issue filled with sentiments. The challenge is when the doctrine has become worsened with the attitudes and the extreme stance of politics activists who propagate unnecessarily in supporting their political parties; otherwise known as political extremist. These extremists culturalized the act of humiliating, degrading and being physical towards their oppositions to be in power. What is more concerning is that this unhealthy competition has normalized the culture of making stories about people, creating and spreading misleading views of the oppositions which are major sins in the name of Allah SWT. Consequently, this leads to prolonged disagreements and creating conflicts that jeopardises unity. Therefore, the politics culture especially amongst Muslims throughout all parties in this country should be scrutinized, to avoid being a bad representative to the beauty of the religion itself. This study will focus on how far does the political culture perspective of ‘Mature and Prosperous Political Culture’: Budaya Politik Matang Sejahtera (BPMS) could be the alternative/solution to change the political culture among the Malaysians. Qualitative methods are used in this study such as analysis of books and related articles, as well as interviews with authorities, namely amongst the founders to the BPMS concept themselves. In support of the Prime Minister’s urge to avoid immoral sentiments of politics, hence, this article suggests for this BPMS concept to be brought forward and studied academically as an initiative to overcome the culture of party extremism and unethical politics among Malaysians, including the politicians. It is hoped that the findings of this study can solve the conflicts related to the political culture of the Malaysians which is mostly based on sentiments rather than rationales or facts. This is a crucial issue for our country as it encourages unhealthy conflicts and creates racial division. The fact is that division will only weaken unity and will inflict on the stability of the country.