A New Stress-Based Model of Political Extremism

Abstract

Does exposure to terrorism lead to hostility toward minorities? Drawing on theories from clinical and social psychology, we propose a stress-based model of political extremism in which psychological distress—which is largely overlooked in political scholarship—and threat perceptions mediate the relationship between exposure to terrorism and attitudes toward minorities. To test the model, a representative sample of 469 Israeli Jewish respondents was interviewed on three occasions at six-month intervals. Structural Equation Modeling indicated that exposure to terrorism predicted psychological distress (t1), which predicted perceived threat from Palestinian citizens of Israel (t2), which, in turn, predicted exclusionist attitudes toward Palestinian citizens of Israel (t3). These findings provide solid evidence and a mechanism for the hypothesis that terrorism introduces nondemocratic attitudes threatening minority rights. It suggests that psychological distress plays an important role in political decision making and should be incorporated in models drawing upon political psychology.

What predicts threat perceptions toward people opposing to the government? A population-based study following Umbrella Movement, Hong Kong

“…Models of intergroup perception and behavior (Brown, 2000;Hogg, 2016) and threat perceptions (Stephan & Stephan, 2000) and relevant empirical evidence were used to differentiate the protestors from antiprotestors based on political traditions and stances in Hong Kong. The conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1998) and stress-based model of political extremism (Canetti-Nisim, Halperin, Sharvit, & Hobfoll, 2009) were applied to explain how socioeconomic resources and psychological distress could be associated with threat perceptions toward the protestors.…”

“…Apart from political stances and attitudes, following social upheaval, socioeconomic resources and psychological distress have been suggested to predict threat perceptions (Adler et al, 1994;Canetti-Nisim et al, 2009;Hobfoll, 1998). According to the COR theory, social and economic resources can be indicated by proxies including education level, household income, employment status, and being married (Hobfoll, 1998).…”

“…The stress-based model of political extremism further suggested that psychological distress resulting from exposure to social upheaval is one of the key predictors of threat perceptions, independent of demographics and exposure to terrorism during and after social upheaval (Canetti-Nisim et al, 2009). In the model, psychological distress was indicated by posttraumatic stress symptoms, which have been associated with higher threat perceptions toward outgroups (Canetti et al, 2010;Canetti, Hall, Rapaport, & Wayne, 2013;Hall, Saltzman, Canetti, & Hobfoll, 2015).…”

“…In the model, psychological distress was indicated by posttraumatic stress symptoms, which have been associated with higher threat perceptions toward outgroups (Canetti et al, 2010;Canetti, Hall, Rapaport, & Wayne, 2013;Hall, Saltzman, Canetti, & Hobfoll, 2015). those who experienced physical harms from terrorist attacks demonstrated higher levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms relative to those who were not directly exposed to terrorist attacks (Canetti-Nisim et al, 2009). Posttraumatic stress symptoms prospectively predicted higher levels of perceived threats and exclusionist attitudes toward Arab Israelis.…”

“…We predicted that possessing preexisting socioeconomic resources (i.e., being married, higher education level, higher household income, and being employed) would be negatively associated with threat perceptions (Hobfoll, 1998). Based on the stress-based model of political extremism (Canetti-Nisim et al, 2009), we expected that psychological distress would be positively associated with threat perceptions. Thus, the aims of this study could not have been addressed in our previous two studies because the key outcome was threat perceptions, instead of psychological distress, and we used the stress-based model of political extremism as a frame of reference rooted in political psychology, rather than psychiatric epidemiology.…”