Countering Terrorist Narratives: Assessing the Efficacy and Mechanisms of Change in Counter-narrative Strategies

Abstract

This study presents the findings of a laboratory-based experiment testing hypothesised processes implicated in the prevention of violent radicalisation through counter-narratives. The central aims of the study were to contribute to counter-narrative theory, whilst highlighting the value of experimental methodologies that can be deployed in this area of scientific enquiry. Two counter-narrative strategies were evaluated against a dominant terrorist narrative. Considering the role of cognition in the processing of narrativerelated information, participants' (n = 150) Cognitive Reflection and Need for Cognition were measured before they were randomly assigned to a narrative that legitimized terrorist violence, one of two counter-narratives, or a control. Returning autonomy to the target by having them actively counter terrorist rhetoric themselves was found to be more effective than offering generic counter-narratives. Notwithstanding the challenges and limitations associated with measuring violent radicalization-related constructs, the findings of the experiment demonstrate the extent to which individuals vary in their susceptibility to violent, terrorist narratives, as well as attempts to counter them.

Effect of Counter-Narratives and Credibility of Sources on Emotional Response: A Study of Instagram and WhatsApp Followers

“…M. Boje, 2002;Tchakounté et al, 2020). The primary objective of this initiative was to protect the public from disinformation and false news (Sellnow et al, 2009;Lewandowsky & van der Linden, 2021), counter the surge of societal-threatening hoaxes (Sarathchandra & Haltinner, 2021;Park & Rim, 2021), debunk specific hoaxes (Kaiser, 2021), and minimise acts of violence (Carthy & Sarma, 2021) while also targeting community groups susceptible to exploiting circulating hoaxes in West Java (McGregor, 2020;Orlando, 2018).…”

“…In the realm of politics, counter-narratives are crafted to debunk various hoaxes (Kaiser, 2021). These counter-narrative messages serve multiple purposes, from minimising acts of violence (Carthy & Sarma, 2021) to functioning as part of a Narrative Counter-Terror Strategy (McGregor, 2020) or rejecting stereotypes (Orlando, 2018). The diverse functions of counternarrative activities stem from their educational value (Miller et al, 2020) and the provision of alternative insights (Mordhorst, 2008).…”

Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice: An Analysis of the UK Government's Counter-Narrative Strategy in the Fight Against Online Extremist Narratives

“…Inoculation strategies, which emphasise the role of individuals in building their own resilience against extremist persuasive appeals, also align with a growing body of literature advocating for bottom-up, participatory, and agency-enhancing communication-based strategies in CVE (Glazzard & Freear, 2020a;2020b;Carthy & Sarma, 2021). This focus on individual agency is a notable departure from more traditional top-down approaches to counter-narratives, which are increasingly viewed as unsuitable (Carthy & Sarma, 2021, p. 585).…”

Understanding (non)involvement in terrorist violence: What sets extremists who use terrorist violence apart from those who do not?

“…For changeable phenomena such as employment status, we used ordinal scales to chart whether their influence was stable, increased, decreased, or essentially ceased during an individual's radicalized period. Given the absence of valid, standardized measures of violent radicalization constructs (Carthy & Sarma, 2023), it was beyond the scope of our project to use continuous or ordinal measures for the majority of variables. Therefore, unless otherwise stated, variables were binary in nature, broadly capturing their “presence” or “absence.”…”