Predicting Radicalism After Perceived Injustice: The Role of Separatist Identity, Sacred Values, and Police Violence
Perceptions of injustice are central to fueling violent political action, though not everyone within a social movement will support violence in response to collective grievances. So who supports violence and who doesn’t after perceived injustice? To address this question, we followed up on the same...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology
2023-12-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Social and Political Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.11255 |
| _version_ | 1797320632636014592 |
|---|---|
| author | Clara Pretus Hammad Sheikh Nafees Hamid Scott Atran |
| author_facet | Clara Pretus Hammad Sheikh Nafees Hamid Scott Atran |
| author_sort | Clara Pretus |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Perceptions of injustice are central to fueling violent political action, though not everyone within a social movement will support violence in response to collective grievances. So who supports violence and who doesn’t after perceived injustice? To address this question, we followed up on the same individuals (N = 805) before and after a court decision in Catalonia (Spain) sentencing nine separatist leaders to prison, an event that led to mass violent and nonviolent protests. We tested three hypotheses by combining classical theories of collective action and more recent extremism models and found support for all three hypotheses. Namely, individuals who exhibited steeper increases in radicalism (controlling for activism) after the court ruling were those who had previously experienced police violence (social dynamics hypothesis), those who identified as separatists (separatist identity hypothesis), and those who held Catalan independence as a sacred value (sacred value hypothesis). Our findings offer a complex picture of real-world conflict settings, where the three evaluated factors seem to be intertwined. We discuss potential venues to restore inter-group relations after perceived injustice, with an assessment of how likely these strategies are to succeed based on the three adopted perspectives. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T04:45:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-72a4e1fe4d52427299956fc73e92dccf |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2195-3325 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T04:45:49Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Social and Political Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-72a4e1fe4d52427299956fc73e92dccf2024-02-08T10:55:07ZengPsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for PsychologyJournal of Social and Political Psychology2195-33252023-12-0111273074610.5964/jspp.11255jspp.11255Predicting Radicalism After Perceived Injustice: The Role of Separatist Identity, Sacred Values, and Police ViolenceClara Pretus0Hammad Sheikh1Nafees Hamid2Scott Atran3Department of Psychobiology and Methodology of Health Sciences, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, SpainInternational Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), Department of War Studies, King’s College London, London, United KingdomInternational Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), Department of War Studies, King’s College London, London, United KingdomChanging Character of War Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, United KingdomPerceptions of injustice are central to fueling violent political action, though not everyone within a social movement will support violence in response to collective grievances. So who supports violence and who doesn’t after perceived injustice? To address this question, we followed up on the same individuals (N = 805) before and after a court decision in Catalonia (Spain) sentencing nine separatist leaders to prison, an event that led to mass violent and nonviolent protests. We tested three hypotheses by combining classical theories of collective action and more recent extremism models and found support for all three hypotheses. Namely, individuals who exhibited steeper increases in radicalism (controlling for activism) after the court ruling were those who had previously experienced police violence (social dynamics hypothesis), those who identified as separatists (separatist identity hypothesis), and those who held Catalan independence as a sacred value (sacred value hypothesis). Our findings offer a complex picture of real-world conflict settings, where the three evaluated factors seem to be intertwined. We discuss potential venues to restore inter-group relations after perceived injustice, with an assessment of how likely these strategies are to succeed based on the three adopted perspectives.https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.11255political violencesacred valuesgroup identityradicalismcollective actioninter-group conflict |
| spellingShingle | Clara Pretus Hammad Sheikh Nafees Hamid Scott Atran Predicting Radicalism After Perceived Injustice: The Role of Separatist Identity, Sacred Values, and Police Violence Journal of Social and Political Psychology political violence sacred values group identity radicalism collective action inter-group conflict |
| title | Predicting Radicalism After Perceived Injustice: The Role of Separatist Identity, Sacred Values, and Police Violence |
| title_full | Predicting Radicalism After Perceived Injustice: The Role of Separatist Identity, Sacred Values, and Police Violence |
| title_fullStr | Predicting Radicalism After Perceived Injustice: The Role of Separatist Identity, Sacred Values, and Police Violence |
| title_full_unstemmed | Predicting Radicalism After Perceived Injustice: The Role of Separatist Identity, Sacred Values, and Police Violence |
| title_short | Predicting Radicalism After Perceived Injustice: The Role of Separatist Identity, Sacred Values, and Police Violence |
| title_sort | predicting radicalism after perceived injustice the role of separatist identity sacred values and police violence |
| topic | political violence sacred values group identity radicalism collective action inter-group conflict |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.11255 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT clarapretus predictingradicalismafterperceivedinjusticetheroleofseparatistidentitysacredvaluesandpoliceviolence AT hammadsheikh predictingradicalismafterperceivedinjusticetheroleofseparatistidentitysacredvaluesandpoliceviolence AT nafeeshamid predictingradicalismafterperceivedinjusticetheroleofseparatistidentitysacredvaluesandpoliceviolence AT scottatran predictingradicalismafterperceivedinjusticetheroleofseparatistidentitysacredvaluesandpoliceviolence |