Political Psychology – Lecture 6 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]

Deradicalization refers to the process of becoming less radical. This applies to both behaviour and beliefs. It involves the cessation of violent actions (1), an increase in confidence in the system (2), a desire to be a part of society (3) and a rejection of non-democratic means (4). Deradicalization programmes often include an effort to prevent radicalization from taking place.

Disengagement refers to the disengagement of radical behaviour. It only applies to behaviour and does not apply to beliefs (e.g. no use of ideology-based violence).

It is not possible to categorize radicalized people in different stages because many individual activists do not fit in these categories. Typologies which work well for one movement may not work well for another movement. It is more useful to describe individuals involved in extremist groups along several dimensions or continuums. There are several relevant continuums:

• Ideological / political motivation vs. non-ideological / apolitical
• Leader / high status in-group vs. follower / strong need to belong to group
• Socially well-adapted / resourceful vs. marginalised / weak social resources
• High on sensation seeking vs. low on sensation seeking

These drivers are used to develop deradicalization and disengagement interventions. A lot of people join extremist groups when they are still minors. Outgroup threat is an important entry factor for extremist groups. There are several other reasons for entry:

• Key event
• Lack of trust (i.e. in government)
• Identity
• Ideology
• Symbolic and realistic threat
• Sensation and adventure

There are also several reasons why people leave extremist groups:

• Key event
• Bad behaviour of group members
• Incongruence own and group ideology
• Bad group functioning
• Personal trauma
• Disillusionment with group leadership
• Stress of staying with the group (i.e. exhaustion of lifestyle)
• Desire for normal life
• Competing social relationships (i.e. external pressures)

People their relationships with family and friends tends to worsen when they are part of an extremist group and they tend to become less connected to society. People appear to have high self-esteem during group membership (i.e. people get self-esteem from group membership).

There are several objectives of deradicalization programmes:

• Reducing the number of active terrorists
• Reducing violence and victimization
• Reducing the dependency on repressive means
• Reducing the economic and social cost of keeping terrorists as prisoner
• Re-orienting ideological views and attitudes of the participants
• Re-socialize ex-members back to normal life
• Acquiring intelligence, evidence and witnesses in court cases
• Using regretful ex-terrorists as opinion builders
• Sowing dissent in the terrorist circles
• Providing an exit from terrorism
• Increasing the legitimacy of the government

However, there is a lack of research on the effectiveness of interventions. It is also unclear what this evidence should consist of and what indicators of successful deradicalization are.

The DIAMANT de-radicalization programme consists of a turning point (i.e. identity management; life history) (1), intercultural moral judgement (2), intercultural conflict management (3). During the programme, individuals are also connected to the society through education and vocation. This intervention is aimed at increasing self-esteem. However, this can lead to increased levels of narcissism, aggressiveness or anti-social behaviour. The empowerment of these individuals may lead to the use of violence if they still adhere to a destructive ideology.

High self-esteem in combination with a threat to the ego is a strong predictor of violent behaviour. Empowering individuals in combination with strengthening empathy is successful in countering violent radicalization. Empathy and perspective-taking are associated with less prejudice and stereotyping.

A moderate level of self-esteem is associated with resilience to violent radicalizations while a high level of self-esteem can make people more susceptible to radicalization. Relative deprivation is a distal factor influencing attitudes toward ideology-based violence.

Perspective-taking is associated with more positive attitudes toward ideology-based violence. This may be because a low-status group has more benefit from perspective giving whereas a high-status group has more benefit from perspective-taking.

UK counterterrorism consists of the CONTEST strategy and this has several subparts:

1. PURSUE
   This includes detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorism.
2. PROTECT
   This includes the protection of infrastructure, crowded places and the transport system.
3. PREPARE
   This includes strengthening the response of emergency services.
4. PREVENT
   This includes stopping people from becoming involved with terrorism or supporting violent extremism.

It is possible that radicalization has become a tool of power exercised by the state and non-Muslim communities against and to control Muslim communities. It is also possible that radicalization is only a narrative to make sense of transition to terrorism. Narrative is the underlying process that links the Muslim population to terrorism.

PREVENT assumes that the British Muslim population is both at risk and risky. There is no distinction between vulnerable and risky. This leads to securitising this group concerning what they might produce. This blurs the actions between risk-management and securitising governance, meaning that vulnerability is seen as potential dangerousness.