Extremist groups recruit by supplying the kinship and belonging that members lacked.

Evidence

One observed that, in hanging out in online chatrooms: “[I would] stay on there all night and then started making friends there, meeting up and then that was my kind of only friends.” Another noted: “I never had been a part of a group that was as tight as [radical group], even though there was a lot of infighting in it. So you go to those rallies and everyone’s your brother, everyone’s extremely cool, friendly.” … Another former white supremacist noted: “Yeah, I alienated myself from my high school or friends in college, but then I made new friends in the movement… . And then I was meeting people by going to conferences and building those relationships. I mean, I really just traded one family and one set of friends for another family and other set of friends that accepted me more than my own flesh and blood did and respected me more, honestly… . It was exciting. It was fun. I had more friends than I knew what to do with.” — 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, 372

Categorization

• XREF: Directly bears on the withdrawal-of-conflict hypothesis: belonging, not ideology, was the binding attractor — supports the reader’s reading purpose. — connects to: Extremist recruitment recruits through belonging and fellowship, not hatred — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2020; Being recruited, seen, and valued is a powerful early pull into extremism. — 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:…, 373; Unmet basic needs like belonging and purpose drive extremist recruitment — 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:…, 57 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Radical groups recruit by supplying the family bond that fractured biological families withheld. #corroborates (0.95) — 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, 374
• Terrorist groups recruit through family and intimate personal bonds that substitute for kin. #corroborates (0.93) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4111
• Extremist groups sustain membership by offering family-like bonds, power, and mission. #corroborates (0.90) — 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, 41
• Unmet basic needs like belonging and purpose drive extremist recruitment #expands (0.85) — 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, 57
• The need to belong sometimes shows null or inverse effects on extremism. #complicates (0.80) — Lea Echelmeyer, Anne-Marie Slotboom, and Frank Weerman, The Putative Effect of Identity on…, 237
• Most extremists radicalize alone before seeking out groups rather than being recruited top-down. #complicates (0.78) — 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, 40
• Radical extremists join groups partly to resolve anger left by unaddressed childhood harm #expands (0.75) — 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, 289