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8 - It’s the Group, Not Just the Individual

Social Identity and Its Link to Exclusion and Extremism

from Part II - Drivers of the Exclusion–Extremism Link

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2024

By
Bertjan Doosje ,
Allard R. Feddes  and
Liesbeth Mann
Edited by
Michaela Pfundmair ,
Andrew H. Hales  and
Kipling D. Williams
Michaela Pfundmair
Affiliation:
Federal University of Administrative Sciences, Germany
Andrew H. Hales
Affiliation:
University of Mississippi
Kipling D. Williams
Affiliation:
Purdue University, Indiana
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Summary

In this chapter, we first address the question of why groups are so much “better at” terrorism than individuals. Specifically, we argue that, when trying to explain terrorism, it makes more sense to consider people’s social identities than their personal identities, and thus to focus on the group rather than the individual. We present seven pieces of evidence for this idea. Subsequently, we describe studies in which we employ a new paradigm called “Bovenland” to study experimentally the role of multiple and ongoing threats to one’s social identity (in terms of exclusion) in explaining inaction, normative, and (extreme) nonnormative behavior. We conclude by articulating how and when threats to one’s social identity are associated with the need to restore one’s image by displaying violent behavior.

Keywords

social identitypersonal identitynormative behaviornonnormative behaviorthreatBovenland paradigm
Type
Chapter
Information
Exclusion and Extremism
A Psychological Perspective
 , pp. 166 - 183
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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