The most powerful radicalization pathways combine personal psychological vulnerabilities with perceived community victimization.

Evidence

Although there is no single radicalization process, one prominent analysis of PIRUS data found that the most powerful combination of risk factors may be “pathways that combine individual psychological and emotional vulnerabilities with perceptions of community victimization.” According to this study, psychological and emotional vulnerabilities are feelings that “stem from lost significance, personal trauma, and collective crises.” Community victimization refers to the perception that an individual’s community is being unfairly targeted or marginalized; a study of risk factors in the Somali American community in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, for instance, found that issues with U.S. foreign policy toward and media coverage of Somalia engendered feelings of resentment and marginalization among some in the community and contributed to the perceived social legitimacy of violent extremism. Another notable theory in the literature suggests that the “quest for significance” can drive individuals to engage in 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, 156

Categorization

• XREF: This directly bears on the reader’s test of the withdrawal-of-conflict hypothesis: if perceived community grievance plus lost significance drives radicalization, deradicalization must address the grievance perception too, not just withdraw conflict. — connects to: Extremist involvement has addictive properties tied to 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; Radicalization risk factors span individual to societal levels simultaneously — 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:…, 115; American radicalization is driven by psychology and emotion, not material deprivation — 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:…, 151 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Personal uncertainty, perceived injustice, and group threat jointly drive radicalization #corroborates (0.95) — Lea Echelmeyer, Anne-Marie Slotboom, and Frank Weerman, The Putative Effect of Identity on…, 267
• Cultural alienation and marginalization predict extremism across both minority and majority groups. #corroborates (0.83) — Lea Echelmeyer, Anne-Marie Slotboom, and Frank Weerman, The Putative Effect of Identity on…, 219
• Trauma before joining creates psychological vulnerability that radicalization later exploits #expands (0.82) — 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, 294
• Perceived exclusion and injustice prime society-wide breeding grounds for radicalization #expands (0.80) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 716
• Personal crises precede and open receptivity to religious radicalization #expands (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, 327
• Online radicalization recruits people by speaking persuasively to their personal anxieties #exemplifies (0.75) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 384
• Self-esteem needs predict extremism only through collective, not personal, mechanisms #complicates (0.74) — Lea Echelmeyer, Anne-Marie Slotboom, and Frank Weerman, The Putative Effect of Identity on…, 240
• Mental health problems create radicalization vulnerability only by blocking other life opportunities #complicates (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, 285