Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology 4 (2023) 100097 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cresp Challenging extremism: A randomized control trial examining the impact of counternarratives in the Middle East and North Africa Jocelyn J. Bélanger a,∗ , Daniel W. Snook a , Domnica Dzitac a , Abdelhak Cheppih b a New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE b iFence, Netherlands a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Counternarratives Violent extremism Jihadism Middle East and North Africa a b s t r a c t This study investigates the effectiveness of counternarratives in reducing the attractiveness of the jihadi ideology among Sunni Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa. The research design was divided into two phases. Phase 1 involved a) creating a comprehensive list of counternarrative disseminated by three main regional organizations (Antibiotics, I-Dare, and Sawab Center) and b) quantifying the public interest these counternarrative generated using social media metrics. Phase 2 involved selecting the top two counternarratives identified in Phase 1 and testing their psychological impact in an experiment that measured both primary and secondary outcomes related to extremism. To this end, a survey was distributed to Sunni Muslims (N = 2,009) living in Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Survey respondents were randomly assigned to one of three messages: a baseline control group or one of the two top counternarratives. Results indicated that the counternarratives had mixed effects on primary and secondary outcomes related to extremism. One of the two counternarrative mitigated Islamic extremism; however, the effect size was negligible, indicating limited practical significance. Moreover, counternarrative had no impact on pro-violence attitudes, perception of the West, or emotions. The key takeaway of this research is that counternarratives have a negligible impact on outcomes relevant to violent extremism. We recommend a roadmap for organizations to increase the effectiveness of counternarrative campaigns in the MENA region. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) continues to be among the deadliest, most active, terrorist groups of our time, despite re- cent territorial setbacks (Hamasaeed, 2022; Institute for Economics and Peace, 2020; Raghavan, 2022; Wilson Center, 2022). The terrorist group rose to prominence due in part to its sophisticated online propaganda machine, which flooded the internet with high-quality digital content, especially graphic and attention-grabbing videos, images, and messages, to call its supporters to arms and recruit new members. ISIS used tech- nology so effectively that it soon became, and remains, a global jihadi brand; a rallying point for other, smaller Islamist groups that share the ambition of establishing a Caliphate and challenging the world order (Mohammed, 2014). In response to ISIS’ propaganda machine, governments have invested heavily in strategic communication campaigns especially in the Mid- dle East and North Africa (MENA), a major source of ISIS recruits (Benmelech and Klor, 2020). These campaigns, also known as coun- ternarratives, are defined as “intentional and direct communication strateg[ies], within a political, policy, or military context, to discredit messaging of a violent extremist nature”(Ferguson, 2016, p. 8). Re- gional organizations such as Antibiotic, I-Dare, and Sawab Center, have been at the forefront of the “hearts and minds” battle, disseminating ∗ Corresponding author at: New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Psychology, PO Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, UAE. E-mail address: jocelyn.belanger@nyu.edu (J.J. Bélanger). thousands of counternarratives in Arabic on multiple social media plat- forms. Despite these efforts, the question of whether counternarratives are effective in breaking down the jihadi brand, particularly in MENA, remains unanswered. Here, we examine the effectiveness of counternarrative in reducing extremism among people living in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia. These countries are of particular interest to our research be- cause (1) ISIS propagandists frequently attempt to recruit individuals from these countries to carry out terrorist attacks against Western tar- gets, (2) thousands of foreign fighters joining ISIS have come from these countries in recent years (Foreign Fighters In Iraq and Syria), and (3) these are areas in which MENA-based counternarrative organizations operate. As a result, the present research is critical on practical grounds because no systematic effort has been made to provide empirical, yet alone experimental, evidence for the effectiveness of counternarrative in the MENA region. Background literature and previous research Previous studies on the efficacy of counternarratives as a means of preventing and countering violent extremism have shown lackluster re- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2023.100097 Received 13 December 2022; Received in revised form 14 February 2023; Accepted 11 March 2023 2666-6227/© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)