Extremist involvement has addictive properties tied to joint risk and struggle

Evidence

Radical ideology and involvement in extremist activities have addictive properties for many. Physical violence and trading insults online have addictive properties that appear linked to the experience of joint risk and struggle. — 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, 59

Categorization

• XREF: Key test material for the withdrawal-of-conflict hypothesis: the addictive pull is described as coming from shared risk experience, which withdrawal of conflict would directly remove - supports the hypothesis. — connects to: Extremist groups sustain membership by offering family-like bonds, power, and mission. — 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; Exiting extremism rarely is final and resembles addiction withdrawal — 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:…, 197; Perpetrators rationalized participation through futility and coercion of circumstance (+5 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that joint risk and struggle themselves (not ideology) are what make extremism addictive is dense: it reframes what the intervention target is.

Broader Connections

• Exiting extremism rarely is final and resembles addiction withdrawal #corroborates (0.88) — 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, 197
• Gradual escalation binds perpetrators to destructive roles they would reject in one step #expands (0.78) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 659
• External threat makes groups punish their own deviants harder #expands (0.74) — Walter G. Stephan, Oscar Ybarra, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Intergroup Threat Theory, 21
• Perpetrators rationalized participation through futility and coercion of circumstance #qualifies (0.72)
• The most powerful radicalization pathways combine personal psychological vulnerabilities with perceived community victimization. #expands (0.72) — 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, 156
• Conspiracy movements recruit across divergent groups by serving different emotional needs #expands (0.70) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 271