Surveying political extremists

Johnson, Timothy P.; Holbrook, Allyson; Atterberry, Keith

doi:10.1017/cbo9781139381635.022

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 56 publications

(61 reference statements)

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“…The recruitment challenges we faced are common ones in research with vulnerable populations (e.g., in our research, former Mujahedeen and Afghans in conflict/war zone; see Johnson et al, 2014; Mneimneh et al, 2014). Also, because of infrastructure limitations, we were unable to utilize crowdsourcing platforms (e.g., Amazon Mechanical Turk).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Study 5 aimed to validate the results from Studies 1 to 4 in sample of previous Jihadists in Afghanistan, Kabul ( N = 127; M age = 46, SD age = 8.31; 100% men), an organization that is associated with war crimes in Afghanistan (Braithwaite & Wardak, 2013). Due challenges collecting data among hard‐to‐reach population and from a conflict zone (e.g., Afghanistan, see Johnson et al, 2014), we did not reach the aimed sample size in this Study. A decision was made to cease data collection after approximately 3 months.…”

Section: Study 5: Former Mujahideen In Afghanistanmentioning

confidence: 98%

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The personality of violent Jihadists: Examining violent and nonviolent defense of Muslims

Obaidi,

Bergh,

Akrami

et al. 2023

Journal of Personality

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ObjectiveAlthough violent extremism is often attributed to clinical (dysfunctional) dispositions, it is also possible that violent Jihadists might be clinically “normal” but bear certain personality signatures. This alternative view has yet to be tested.MethodIn six studies, employing hard‐to‐reach Muslim samples, including one study of former Mujahideen, we investigated the relationship between basic personality traits and violent extremism. We further used a known group paradigm to validate the personality signatures of violent extremism, comparing a sample of former Mujahideen with another sample from Afghanistan.ResultsThese studies and an internal meta‐analysis revealed that Lower Openness to Experience, lower Emotionality, and lower Altruism were associated with more violent intentions to support Muslims. Higher Altruism was associated with higher levels of nonviolent intention to support Muslims. Supporting the validity of the nonviolent intention measure, similar associations were found in Study 3 with overt behavioral support of Muslims (donations). More important, compared to the nonMujahideen, the Mujahideen sample scored lower on average on, for instance, Openness, indicating that these results go beyond self‐reported, findings.ConclusionWe demonstrated that personality predicts violent and nonviolent defense of Muslims among four general populations of Muslims living in the West and in Asia (including the Middle East), and a sample of Mujahideen in Afghanistan.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study 5: Former Mujahideen In Afghanistanmentioning

confidence: 98%