Sociology 3363F/G Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Los Angeles Jewish Community Center Shooting, Andrei Zhelyabov, The Slippery Slope
24 May 2018
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Mechanisms of Political Radicalization: Pathways Towards Terrorism
- Mechanism used in a general sense in the social sciences as “the means or manner in which something is
accomplished. Thus, the mechanism of vision includes the physical stimulus and the physiological and neural
processes involved”
- Functionally political radicalization is increased prep for and commitment to intergroup conflict
- Descriptively, radicalization means change in beliefs, feelings and behaviours in directions that increasingly
justify intergroup violence and demand sacrifice in defense of the ingroup
Radicalization in the Pyramid Model
Individual and Mass Radicalization
- Radicalization in social psychological is distinguished by belief, feeling and behaviour
o Radical behaviour is greatest concern
o In a political context this means increasing time, money, risk0rajing and violence in support of a political
cause which is associated with a particular group that cares about this cause
- Radicalization of many kinds may be associated with a syndrome of beliefs about the current situation and its
history
o Superiority who have been treated unfairly and betrayed and no one else cares about us – so our
group/cause are in danger of extinction
- Group identification leads to feelings of guilt about wrongdoing perpetrated by others are member of the group
identified
o Caring about those in your group is the foundation of mass politics and the pre-req for national, ethnic
and religious group conflict
- Terrorist are the apex of a pyramid because few shares their beliefs
o Base of the pyramid is all the sympathizes of the goals of the terrorists
o From the base up are associated with decreased numbers but increased radicalized beliefs, feelings and
behaviours
- Radicalization can be distinguished from terrorist and sympathizers
Radicalization in Groups
- Economist and political scientists use rational-choice with individuals who are reluctant to commit real resources
of time, money and risk-taking to advance the cause of the group
o Benefit is to all groups, but the cost is to the activist
o Rational choice for an individual who cares about the group is to do nothing, let other individuals pay the
cost and benefit from any advancement of the free-rider
- Consequence to the free-rider may be:
o Government regulation (if identified)
o Individual morality (internal norms) → group and personal morality is hard to separate because it is
anchored in the group
o Informal face-to-face sanctions
- Radicalization and terrorism made possible by bringing individuals into the group
Radicalization of Individuals, Groups and Masses
- Different levels of radicalization
o Individuals: personal grievances and by identity group grievances as conveyed by mass media, rumor or
the testimony of others
o Political groups/mass publics are radicalized in conflict with states or other political groups
- 12 mechanisms at three levels: individual, group and mass
1. Individual radicalization by Personal Victims
- Cited in reference to suicide terrorists
o Chechen Black Widows are described as seeking revenge against Russians for their own experience
- Personal grievances as a motive and goes as far as Russian terrorist of the late 1800s
o Andrei Zhelyabov killing Czar Alex II was a plot of revenge on those wronged by him
o Social psychological view would be that personal grievances is unlikely to account for group sacrifice
unless the personal is framed and interpreted as representative of group grievances
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2. Induvial Radicalization by Political Grievance
- Some individuals are moved to individual acts in response to political trends/events
- IE Ted Kaczysnki (the Unabomber)
- Buford Furrow who turned himself in after wounding 5 at a Jewish Community Centre
- Cases where individuals act along in repose to political grievances are rare
o In these cases, there’s likely to be an association to a larger group – Kaczynski was liked to survivalists-
Furrow associated with white supremacy
- With radicalization comes psychopathology
o Kcazynski suffered from schizophrenia
3. individual Radicalization in Joining a Radical Group- The Slippery Slope
- Joining a group is usually a slow process to gain the group’s trust
o May have to undergo a test before being asked to use guns or bombs
- Wafa Idriss, the first female Palestinian suicide bomber took a giant step from induvial to group – within two
weeks
- The power of step-by-step self-persuasion through one’s own behaviour is well studied in social psych
o Strong tendency for self-justification after an individual does something stupid or sleazy
o Dissonance theory understands this tendency as an effort to reduce the inconsistency between positive
self-image and bead behaviour
- Milgram experiment demonstrates radicalization
o Normal individuals who draw the role of teacher and shocking ‘victims’
o Listening to the teacher and raising the shcok from 15 to 450 Vlts
o About 60% of teachers are completely obedient
o Variation in the study added a co-teacher while the native teacher gives the shocks
o The experimenter leaves the room and the co-teacher comes up with he idea of raising the shock level
with each mistake
o Despite the absence of the experimenter 20% of teachers progress to administer the 450 vlts
o In Milgram’s experience the dependent variable is radicalization in behavior and the feelings
- In the Zimbardo experiment psychologically, stable male students volunteer to act as a prison guard or prisoners
for a few days
o The guards gradually increases their abuse towards the prisoners to the degree that Zimbardo was forced
to quit the experience
- Unlike the Milgram experiment, feelings and beliefs were not measured during the Prison experiment
o Greater demonstration of progression in the Zimbardo experiment
- There is a pattern of slowly increasing radical behaviour that harms other
- Dissonance experiences and in Zimbardo’s prison experiment we see the power of self-persuasion in justifying
one’s own behaviour
- Self-radicalization is a slippery slope of increasingly extreme behaviour with increasingly extreme reasons and
justifications icing the slope
4. Individual Racialization in Joining a Radical Group- The Power of Love
- The path to radical that has most attention in theorizing terrorism
o Indviudals are recruited via personal connections with existing terrorists
o Recruiting lovers, family, friends
- Trust may determine the network within who the terrorists recruit, but love determines who will join
- Devotion to comrades can lead to a clique of friends joining a terror group
o Porta says block recruitment occurred both for the Brigate Rosse and the German Red Army –
sometimes a small political group would hold a meeting and if voted favoured for joining all would join
- An individual who joins due to love is more likely to further as common goals and threats increase the group’s
cohesion
- Interviews of Sinn Fienn members led by White concluded that group solidarity and hope of making a
difference for the group were two strongest forces holding the group together
- devotion to comrades is both the force for joining and barrier to leaving the group
5. Group Radicalization in Like-Minded Groups
- Risky shift/group extremity shift/group polarization
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Mechanism used in a general sense in the social sciences as the means or manner in which something is accomplished. Thus, the mechanism of vision includes the physical stimulus and the physiological and neural processes involved . Functionally political radicalization is increased prep for and commitment to intergroup conflict. Descriptively, radicalization means change in beliefs, feelings and behaviours in directions that increasingly justify intergroup violence and demand sacrifice in defense of the ingroup. Radicalization in social psychological is distinguished by belief, feeling and behaviour: radical behaviour is greatest concern. In a political context this means increasing time, money, risk0rajing and violence in support of a political cause which is associated with a particular group that cares about this cause. Radicalization can be distinguished from terrorist and sympathizers. Consequence to the free-rider may be: government regulation (if identified) Individual morality (internal norms) group and personal morality is hard to separate because it is anchored in the group.
