Interventions by individual people helped most sampled extremists exit or deradicalize.

Evidence

Successful Interventions by Individuals Our respondents described successful interventions by one or more individuals that helped 22 (19 white supremacists and three Islamic extremists) of our 32 focal individuals to exit radical groups, psychologically deradicalize, or remain deradicalized after initial deradicalization. These interventions were often intentional, in that they were planned and orchestrated in advance. However, interventions were also sometimes happenstance, in that individuals (or organizations, discussed later in this chapter) played an unwitting role in the focal individual’s 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, 398

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Direct family confrontation often backfires or has no effect on committed extremists. — 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:…, 451; Successful individual interventions mostly supplied positive support, not confrontation. — 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:…, 399; Deradicalized individuals can be interviewed about their own exit process. (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Many extremists proactively seek out reasons and philosophy to abandon radicalism. #corroborates (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, 443
• Stopping extremism and abandoning its beliefs are distinct forms of exit #qualifies (0.80) — 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, 189
• Effective exit relationships shift former extremists toward inclusive we-frameworks #expands (0.80) — Amy Fisher-Smith, Charles R. Sullivan, John D. Macready, and Geoffrey Manzi, Identity Reconfiguration and the Core…, 630
• Accepting relationships with out-group members model new identity structures for exiting extremists. #expands (0.80) — Amy Fisher-Smith, Charles R. Sullivan, John D. Macready, and Geoffrey Manzi, Identity Reconfiguration and the Core…, 475
• Widespread individual exit strategies undermine collective mobilization and perpetuate subordinate status. #complicates (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2747