Unsorted Significance: Examining Potential Pathways to Extreme Political Beliefs and Communities on Reddit
Violent political extremists often point to online communities as motivating their behavior. However, researchers studying online exposure to extremism through structural mechanisms such as algorithms have not found strong evidence of their influence. At the same time, models of offline radicalizati...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Socius |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231231174823 |
| _version_ | 1797823548467707904 |
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| author | Marcus Mann Diana Zulli Jeremy Foote Emily Ku Emily Primm |
| author_facet | Marcus Mann Diana Zulli Jeremy Foote Emily Ku Emily Primm |
| author_sort | Marcus Mann |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Violent political extremists often point to online communities as motivating their behavior. However, researchers studying online exposure to extremism through structural mechanisms such as algorithms have not found strong evidence of their influence. At the same time, models of offline radicalization processes emphasize the importance of personal motivations, such as desire for significance and community, but do not fully account for online contexts. The authors integrate these approaches, which are both interested in worsening political extremism, asking, (1) What are the pathways to extreme content and communities online? and (2) What are the perceptions of extremism in online communities? Through interviews with politically active Redditors, the authors identify three motivations for initial engagement with fringe political communities: political unsorting of the self, political exceptionalism, and virtuous participation. The authors argue these motivations are potentially important seeds of political extremism and discuss the implications for supporting healthy political discourse online. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T10:25:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2dc3d57dd15d4c5fafd52b569ad5c9dd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2378-0231 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T10:25:34Z |
| publishDate | 2023-05-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Socius |
| spelling | doaj.art-2dc3d57dd15d4c5fafd52b569ad5c9dd2023-05-19T09:03:58ZengSAGE PublishingSocius2378-02312023-05-01910.1177/23780231231174823Unsorted Significance: Examining Potential Pathways to Extreme Political Beliefs and Communities on RedditMarcus Mann0Diana Zulli1Jeremy Foote2Emily Ku3Emily Primm4Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USAPurdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USAPurdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USAPurdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USAPurdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USAViolent political extremists often point to online communities as motivating their behavior. However, researchers studying online exposure to extremism through structural mechanisms such as algorithms have not found strong evidence of their influence. At the same time, models of offline radicalization processes emphasize the importance of personal motivations, such as desire for significance and community, but do not fully account for online contexts. The authors integrate these approaches, which are both interested in worsening political extremism, asking, (1) What are the pathways to extreme content and communities online? and (2) What are the perceptions of extremism in online communities? Through interviews with politically active Redditors, the authors identify three motivations for initial engagement with fringe political communities: political unsorting of the self, political exceptionalism, and virtuous participation. The authors argue these motivations are potentially important seeds of political extremism and discuss the implications for supporting healthy political discourse online.https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231231174823 |
| spellingShingle | Marcus Mann Diana Zulli Jeremy Foote Emily Ku Emily Primm Unsorted Significance: Examining Potential Pathways to Extreme Political Beliefs and Communities on Reddit Socius |
| title | Unsorted Significance: Examining Potential Pathways to Extreme Political Beliefs and Communities on Reddit |
| title_full | Unsorted Significance: Examining Potential Pathways to Extreme Political Beliefs and Communities on Reddit |
| title_fullStr | Unsorted Significance: Examining Potential Pathways to Extreme Political Beliefs and Communities on Reddit |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unsorted Significance: Examining Potential Pathways to Extreme Political Beliefs and Communities on Reddit |
| title_short | Unsorted Significance: Examining Potential Pathways to Extreme Political Beliefs and Communities on Reddit |
| title_sort | unsorted significance examining potential pathways to extreme political beliefs and communities on reddit |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231231174823 |
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