Examining the Relationship Between Alienation and Radicalization into Violent Extremism

Abstract

Alienation is often presented as being an important risk factor in academic studies dealing with radicalization into violent extremism. While this claim certainly makes sense intuitively there is comparatively little empirical evidence cited in the scholarship to support it. This chapter examines the evidence for whether an increased sense of alienation is significantly related to increased preference for extremist and/or violent views. The first study found that the more alienated the young Australians we studied were, the more they tended to support violent extremism. Study two found that our sample of Indonesian students responded to existential threats by preferring extremist views. In a third experimental study, we attempted to manipulate alienation in a sample of American adults. In this experiment, the results were much less clear, in large part because it proved difficult to manipulate alienation with the experimental methodology used. Alienation or belonging may be particularly difficult to manipulate in older populations who have a more developed sense of self. Overall, the findings of these studies suggest that extreme ideologies can offer an effective buffer against threat and anxiety for individuals who are more alienated and therefore less able to cope.