Why do individuals subscribe to extremism?

In 2014 I went out on a journey to conducting research for my MFA Design Management thesis on Extremism. For the purpose of the study, I had taken to focusing on and comparing religious extremism (specifically Islamist extremism), and racial extremism (specifically Far-right, or otherwise known as White Supremacist, and Neo Nazis).

Some of my key thesis questions were — what are the causes of extremism, why do some individuals gravitate towards it, and what is the antidote for it? These simple yet hairy questions led me to a 4 year journey of primary research. Un surprisingly, it is not easy to find extremists, or former extremists who would actually talk about their experience. And after years of connecting with people, searching online, reading books, sending emails, I was able o speak to a dozen of them, spread across the globe. Despite the struggle and time it took to find these individuals, hardest part was to make sense of what I heard from them. It was contradictory to the numerous literature, and publications from huge terrorism think tanks.

This first post is a summary that answers one of the key questions—why do some individuals gravitate towards extremism?

Contrary to popular belief individuals don’t just decide one day they wanted to be extremists. It is not rational decision, it’s an extremely emotional one. The prevailing belief is that ideology comes first. That individuals subscribe to the ideologies that radicalize them to either join a hate group or commit an extremist act. After speaking to the in-field CVE researchers and former extremists, it is apparent that the ideology is not the pull. It is rather the connections with people who seem to accept them. Or following an influencer, someone they idealize for cultural, or emotional reasons. The pull are the people they could call their tribe.

Extremist organizations, or groups look for the misfits, the isolated, the vulnerable youth looking to be part of something bigger, and they include them. They are more inclusive, then the wider society at times, at least for the excluded looking to be included. Their radicalization occurs slowly, as individuals trust their tribe or the leaders of their movement. The introduction to ideology is gradual, in some cases the group leadership gains influence and then radicalizes. In other cases, radicalization happens in isolation through online content.

“Every single person I recruited or was recruited around the same time that I did, or even today, is recruited through vulnerabilities and not through ideology.”

C. Picciolini (one of the formers, or ex-extremists as they tend to call themselves)

While I list three key traits I found through my research, I want to highlight that there is no formula, no one path to extremism. It’s highly contextual, and an emotional journey where each individual has a different reason and situation. These three key vulnerabilities were common among those joining extremist organizations or subscribing to extremism. Some may have multiple vulnerabilities, others might just have one. These traits became their vulnerabilities, were the reason for them to seek certain groups, to join, to fraternize, or to subscribe to their extremist beliefs without formally being part of a group.

Lack of agency:

The desire to seek status. These individuals feel deprived of their inherent power or privilege in the world. They seek what they think is a rightful place in the society or the world. They think their group’s power and influence is decreasing. They want to regain a social position they think they (their identity group) once had.

Isolation:

They are in search of a tribe — a group of people who could relate to them or to which they belong to. In other words searching for identity, or trying to fit in. They either feel disconnected from the larger society or are unable to fit in. This could be due to a wide spectrum of things, ranging from their personalities to their beliefs and ethnicities, or socio-economic backgrounds.

Desire for purpose:

Some are rebels without a cause, looking for one. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves. To contribute towards something larger than their own life.

These vulnerabilities are key to humanity, yet extremist organizations prey on these and use against the individual and the society. What if the society was a place that included all sorts of people, that talked about differences as an asset, and not a liability, or a problem that needs to be fixed.

Keep an eyes on this space as I write more about my research on extremism. And if you are working on the similar topics please drop a line, would love to hear what you are doing.