Encountering hated groups treating one normally dismantles extremists’ stereotypes.

Evidence

Diverse Cultural and Demographic Exposure Notably, the most common type of successful interventions by individuals involved these individuals intentionally or inadvertently exposing extremists to cultural or demographic diversity that challenged these extremists’ preconceived notions about groups that they hated as part of their ideology. This occurred in 17 cases: 14 white supremacists and three Islamic extremists. For example, one former white supremacist explained: “But I was forced to travel … because of the nature of my work. And I found myself in situations where I was faced with things with my perceived enemy … and my perceived enemy was treating me normal… . It was like I just came from a black neighborhood or I just came from [after working in] a Hispanic neighborhood and all this stuff that you’re [other white supremacists are] saying, I didn’t see it.” Similarly, a former Islamic extremist described how he traveled internationally during his honeymoon, and how “all these different places … really impacted me, and it made me become more—it relaxed me a bit.” — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America, 418

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Unexpected acceptance from expected-rejecting groups drives deradicalization. — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America:…, 429; Group hatred targets what a person is, not what they do. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1011; Negative stereotypes both accompany intergroup threats and independently predict outgroup attitudes — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup…, 127 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Group hatred targets what a person is, not what they do. #complicates (0.75) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1011
• Negative stereotypes both accompany intergroup threats and independently predict outgroup attitudes #complicates (0.72) — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup Attitudes, 127
• People exaggerate an outgroup’s stereotypic traits and underestimate its diversity #qualifies (0.70) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 876