Personal identity crisis can open individuals to extremist groups offering identity answers

Evidence

According to a number of other models, some form of personal crisis (e.g. an identity crisis) serves as a “cognitive opening” that onsets the process of radicalization, causing individuals to challenge their previous (world) view and to seek out groups or ideological frameworks that facilitate answers and, ultimately, identity-construction. — Lea Echelmeyer, Anne-Marie Slotboom, and Frank Weerman, The Putative Effect of Identity on…, 20

Categorization

• XREF: This is the personal/developmental identity-crisis mechanism — the construct only two of 75 studies actually tested, per the abstract. — connects to: The moratorium phase frees extremists to pursue identity questions without the group’s framework — Amy Fisher-Smith, Charles R. Sullivan, John D. Macready, and Geoffrey Manzi, Identity Reconfiguration and the Core…, 430; Leaving extremism requires bridging relationships that scaffold a new identity — Amy Fisher-Smith, Charles R. Sullivan, John D. Macready, and Geoffrey Manzi, Identity Reconfiguration and the Core…, 618; 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 (+1 more)