Hanna and Emma presented work from Pop-Rad at the Nordic Political Science Association's Political Psychology workshop in August in Odense.
Abstract
The present research aims to determine how the so called quest for significance plays into the radicalization process. Humans innately seek significance, for instance self-worth, value and respect. Loss of significance elicits a search for ways to re-establish self-worth, value and respect. One way to achieve this is by adherence to a radical ideology. We here analyze social exclusion as a type of significance loss, and establish effects on adaption to a radical group. Social exclusion has been shown to affect individuals in a similar manner as a more general ‘significance loss’ – social exclusion threatens basic human needs for affiliation, belongingness and the desire to ‘be somebody’. Following social exclusion, individuals are more prone to adapt to others who provide an opportunity for inclusion. We use a validated online experimental manipulation of social exclusion that takes the form of a social media platform, similar to Facebook. Two studies show that excluded individuals, especially those highly sensitive to rejection, were more likely to identify as a right-wing/left-wing activist after having been included into a radical right-wing/left-wing group. They were also more likely to want to join the radical group that included them following exclusion. Hence, our results show that the mechanism of significance loss is independent of ideological content, and works the same for individuals to the left and right of the political spectrum, which in line with the significance quest model of radicalization.