Special Issue: Psychology of Extremist Political Identification Editorial The Psychology of Extremist Identification An Introduction Catarina Kinnvall 1 and Tereza Capelos 2 1 Department of Political Science, Lund University, Sweden 2 Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom Following the September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States, policy approaches to extremism have mainly focused on understanding the dynamics of religious-based extremism, such as Al-Qaeda and other violent Jihadist/ Islamist groups. Predominantly, the emphasis has been on mapping individual pathways into these particular forms of extreme mobilization. Attacks in Paris, Brussels, and Manchester, as well as in North Africa, Somalia, and Yemen confirm the value of this work in light of the continuing dominance of the security challenges posed by radical Islam, not least in relation to the rise of the so-called Isla- mic State, or ISIS. The large number of incidents in Europe and elsewhere have resulted in calls for counter-strategies to be modified or expanded, but also for greater resources to be devoted to understanding other forms of extremism, particularly those associated with extreme far right responses or ethnic nationalist ideologies. The economic crisis and its policy responses, along with migration, inte- gration and asylum policies, have affected the relationship between populism and extremism in a fundamental and encompassing manner. The electoral successes of populist, Eurosceptic, and far right parties confirm such tendencies, showing the capacity of extremist discourses to mobilize constituencies against vulnerable groups (e.g., ethnic minorities and immigrants), other countries, and interna- tional institutions. Various versions of cultural nationalism have underpinned such mobilization, marked among other things by xenophobia, anti-Semitism, misogyny and Islam- ophobia, in turn fueling violence. The January 6, 2021 attack at the United States Capitol adds to this picture and lays bare a number of issues related to disinformation, polarization, and the challenge to democratic institutions. This special issue aims to widen the analysis of extrem- ism to account for the unresolved puzzles that continue to plague practitioners, policy makers, and academics alike: Why some individuals engage in extremist politics while others in the same environment do not? How do group identification and politicized identities become constructed in extremist contexts? What are the gradual processes of psychological transformation that occur in relation to the beliefs, actions and reactions of different social groups to extremist societal milieus? What are the main drivers of extremist public opinions? How do political participation, recruitment strategies, including social media, public poli- cies, and globalization affect the turn towards extremist political identification? What role do age, ethnicity, class, race and gender play in this process and how can we under- stand the function of ideology, insecurity and anxiety that often seem to be at the heart of extremist thoughts and beliefs? And perhaps most importantly, how can extremist beliefs and behavior be prevented? Competing Notions of Extremism Part of the challenge and opportunity of engaging with the concept of extremism and with extremist political identifi- cation is to determine what we mean with the concept and process. The conceptual borders of extremism are not easily determined and should be considered alongside related concepts that share the urgent desire for change, such as radicalism, activism, reactionism or fundamental- ism, as well as those that share the psychological and often physical engagement with violence, like fanaticism and terrorism. Veldhuis and Staun (2009) make a distinction between violent extremism where emphasis is put on the active pursuit or acceptance of the use of violence to attain the stated goal, and a broader sense of extremism involving the active pursuit or acceptance of far-reaching changes in Ó 2021 Hogrefe Publishing European Psychologist (2021), 26(1), 1–5 https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000439 https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/pdf/10.1027/1016-9040/a000439 - Wednesday, March 30, 2022 8:36:26 AM - IP Address:54.224.56.127