Clark Mccauley

Bryn Mawr College | BMC · Department of Psychology

This article explores the meaning and importance of hate in intergroup conflict, especially in conflict that moves to genocide or politicide. Review of controversies in defining hate leads to definition of hate as an extreme form of negative identification that includes perception of bad essence . Negative identification is inverse caring for other...

This paper identifies what we see as opportunities to improve data collection, analysis, and interpretation of findings in American and British terrorism research. We suggest seven directions that we see as promising. These include: 1) interview methods and reporting, 2) source reporting in database studies, prioritizing available court records, 3)...

We applied Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to responses to items from the Activism and Radicalism Intentions Scales (ARIS). In two studies (undergraduates n = 530) and prisoners (n = 670), item profiles identified four groups – Inert, Moderate Activists, Strong Activists, Radicals, and Mixed – that confirm and extend the levels of the Action Pyramid of...

We applied Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to responses to items from the Activism and Radicalism Intentions Scales (ARIS). In two studies (undergraduates n=530) and prisoners (n=670), item profiles identified four groups--Inert, Moderate Activists, Strong Activists, and Radicals—that confirm and extend the levels of the Action Pyramid of the Two Pyram...

Activism is legal and non-violent political action, whereas Radicalism is illegal and sometimes violent action. Moskalenko and McCauley introduced the Activism Intentions Scale (AIS) and the Radicalism Intentions Scale (RIS) as related but distinguishable dimensions: the scales were significantly correlated but showed different correlates. The same...

I introduce the contributions to the Special Issue focused on the Capitol breach of 6 January 2021, and suggest that the breach can only be understood in the context of a long and escalating conflict between Right and Left activists in the U.S. A milestone in this conflict was the interaction between police and protesters at the inauguration of Don...

QAnon is a baseless and debunked conspiracy theory propagated through Internet social media, with bizarre beliefs that are nevertheless shared by millions of Americans. After the 1/6/2021 Capitol Hill riot, QAnon followers were identified among those breaching the Capitol Hill building, spurring comparisons with ISIS and debates about how to deradi...

The Essence of Hate and Love Clark McCauley Research Professor of Psychology Bryn Mawr College Communication regarding this chapter to Clark McCauley, cmccaule@brynmawr.edu Published as Chapter 3 (pp. 43-64) of Perspectives on Hate: How It Originates, Develops, Manifests, and Spreads, Edited by Robert J. Sternberg (Washington, D.C.: APA Books).

What kind of violence is called terrorism? There is no one accepted definition of terrorism. There is, however, a general agreement among government definitions that terrorism is either violence or a threat of violence whose purpose is to coerce a government or citizens. Another common...

What is the difference between deradicalization and desistence? Many assume that deradicalization requires giving up both radical political ideas and radical action. In particular, it is often assumed that giving up radical ideas is the only or best pathway to giving up terrorist violence. This...

Who is a lone wolf terrorist? Sometimes called a lone actor terrorist, a lone wolf terrorist acts alone, without support from a terrorist group or organization. Modern use of the term goes back to Tom Metzger, founder of the White Aryan Resistance, who argued in...

I know someone who has radical ideas; Is this person dangerous? Not all radical ideas are connected with violence. A radical opinion challenges the basic assumptions of a culture; so a radical is someone who wants deep change in society. Women seeking the vote were...

What is wrong with radicalization and extremism? Radicalization is change in beliefs, feelings, or actions toward increased support for one side of an intergroup conflict. Extremism refers to beliefs, feelings, or actions that go against the political status quo. What is wrong...

Answering this question requires knowing a little about suicide.

What is a mass identity? Imagine having to complete 10 statements that start “I am . . .”. Your responses would likely span your individual identity (student, welder), your group identity (mother, union member), and your mass identity (American, Catholic). These identities define many of...

What if we just jailed every ISIS sympathizer? How many ISIS sympathizers are there? A 2017 internet poll of about 200 US Muslims asked two questions about ISIS: ¹ “Overall, do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the Islamic State of Iraq and...

How can personal grievance radicalize an individual? Imagine you have been wronged. Imagine the person or people who wronged you represent a superior power, like the government. Imagine that your pain is too great to just forget about it and continue living your life as...

Is there mass radicalization in the United States today? Yes. When we published Friction in 2011, the book’s subtitle, “How Conflict Radicalizes Them and Us” was itself radical. ¹ Our idea was that not only the bad guys, the terrorists, but also...

Terrorism and radicalization came to the forefront of news and politics in the US after the unforgettable attacks of September 11th, 2001. When George W. Bush famously asked "Why do they hate us?," the President echoed the confusion, anger and fear felt by millions of Americans, while also creating a politicized discourse that has come to character...

How can interaction of like-minded people make them more extreme? Imagine you got together with some friends for dinner, and in the course of the evening a politically charged topic came up— implementing prayer in school or making abortion illegal, for example. Because you are...

Who are we to talk about radicalization and terrorism? In recent years, terrorism and radicalization have (unfortunately) become something of a regular topic in the news, in movies and TV shows, and even in dinnertime conversations. It seems like everyone knows something and has a...

How can overreaction to a terror attack build support for terrorists (jujitsu politics)? A group of nobodies get together and declare war against some massive entity like the cell phone industry, perhaps because they believe the radiation is harmful and the towers are a blight....

In this commentary, I compare the ABC model of radicalization with the Two Pyramids model of radicalization. Both models distinguish radicalization of opinion from radicalization of action. Beyond this agreement are questions about the concepts deployed in advancing the ABC model and research issues relating to applications of the two models. I con...

In Western countries, there are two systems for understanding the world: religion and science. These two systems come together in surprising ways in exploring the power of self-sacrifice and martyrdom. In this chapter, the authors define martyrdom as peaceful and deliberate acceptance of suffering and death for a cause. The story of World War II Wa...

The last section of the book focuses on the audience of martyrdom: ordinary people who make the extraordinary achievements of martyrs possible. The authors describe the developmental origins of self-sacrifice, its psychological appeal, and its effects on those who engage in it. The developmental psychology of self-sacrifice begins with a child born...

THE MARVEL OF MARTYRDOM is about how martyrs can change the world and how self-sacrifice can change lives. The book starts with famous and influential martyrs, such as Jesus and Gandhi. But the pinnacles of martyrdom can only be reached via the plains of everyday selflessness. Every martyr examined began with smaller forms of self-sacrifice familia...

Some contenders for the martyrs’ title wish to abuse the power of martyrdom against the West. These include terrorists, especially suicide bombers. Less dangerous, though no less misleading, are claims that self-immolators and victims are martyrs. Continuing to explore the interaction between martyrs and their audiences, this and the following two...

THE MARVEL OF MARTYRDOM is about how martyrs can change the world and how self-sacrifice can change lives. The book starts with famous and influential martyrs, such as Jesus and Gandhi. But the pinnacles of martyrdom can only be reached via the plains of everyday selflessness. Every martyr examined began with smaller forms of self-sacrifice familia...

Looking first for evidence in popular culture, the authors ask whether martyrdom stories still inspire today as they did 2,000 years ago. Three blockbuster stories that became cultural icons turn out to be martyrdom stories: the Harry Potter series, Lord of the Rings , and the Matrix trilogy. At the heart of each, the authors uncover a story that f...

Fake martyrdoms, either cynically forged, as was Nazi Germany’s Horst Wessel, or sincerely misguided, as was Guatemala’s Rodrigo Rosenberg, can yet have political impact––when an audience is ready for social change. Lessons from fake martyrs illuminate the moral and emotional investments a martyr’s audience must make if the martyr’s story is to hav...

How and why does a martyr story spread beyond individuals to larger groups, permeating a cultural landscape? What are the social psychological mechanisms that make people want to share the story with others? This chapter will trace the effects of martyrdom beyond individual followers, to groups of sympathizers and opponents of the martyr’s cause. T...

wwThe worldwide success of three blockbusters discussed earlier—the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Harry Potter series, and the Matrix trilogy—could be seen as a coincidence were it not for the presence of the same seven narrative conditions the authors identify in every one of the three stories. Taken together, these seven conditions make up a pro...

Moving from fictional to real-world examples, the following chapters consider historical figures who were hailed as martyrs. What makes one martyr succeed while another martyr fails to affect political change? Why are martyrdoms faked, and what can public reaction to fakes tell us about the nature of martyrdom? In this section, the authors explore...

In the concluding chapter, the authors highlight the power of self-sacrifice and martyrdom as psychological, political, and cultural forces that persevere despite Western devotion to values of competition and self-interest. A case of self-sacrificial leadership in the military (General Slim) highlights the little-utilized power of leaders’ self-sac...

This chapter evaluates the moral threat of suicide terrorism. Political and psychological resilience to the threat of suicide bombing requires understanding the difference between suicide bombers and true martyrs. A martyr’s political power comes from the indisputable evidence—the martyr’s own suffering at the hands of the powerful—that the powerfu...

Some true martyrs fail to bring the social change they seek, because they are too far from ideal martyrdom, or because those called upon to follow in the martyr’s footsteps refuse to do so. Andrei Sakharov’s failure to affect Russia’s foreign and domestic policy can be traced to his story’s incongruence with the seven ideal conditions for martyrdom...

A martyrdom story can sound quite different depending on which side is telling it. Someone who supported the institution or power that the martyr challenged may be unable to see the martyr’s actions in the same light as those who sympathize with the martyr’s cause. For the side that oppressed the martyr, his actions might seem trivial, ambiguous, s...

The Arab Spring brought to the front pages of Western newspapers stories of people who were hailed as martyrs by Muslims and accepted as such by the West. Two such cases are detailed in this chapter, one of a Tunisian self-immolator who started the Arab Spring; the other of a victim of the Iranian regime’s crackdown on the Green Revolution. The aut...

In this chapter, the authors examine the first of three steps on a martyr’s path from obscurity to fame: What makes martyrdom a riveting story for individuals who witness it or learn about it? Using the case of 2014 Ukraine’s Heaven’s Hundred, the authors apply psychological research to understand the sources of martyr stories’ appeal. Perceptually...

This chapter retells the most famous story in the world, leaving aside claims of divinity, miracles, and resurrection and focusing only on the ideas of self-sacrifice and martyrdom in the Gospels. The authors ask how (without divine intervention) the story of Jesus could have had such remarkable success. What was it about Jesus’s martyrdom that mad...

THE MARVEL OF MARTYRDOM is about how martyrs can change the world and how self-sacrifice can change lives. The book starts with famous and influential martyrs, such as Jesus and Gandhi. But the pinnacles of martyrdom can only be reached via the plains of everyday selflessness. Every martyr examined began with smaller forms of self-sacrifice familia...

Our sixth U.S. Muslim Internet poll was conducted from October 28 to November 7, 2016; the poll was completed by 216 participants thought to be representative of the U.S. Muslim adult population. Questions included opinions of Islamic State, opinions about the Syrian conflict and the Syrian refugee crisis, and opinions relating to the 2016 U.S. Pre...

This article reviews some of the milestones of thinking about political radicalization, as scholars and security officials struggled after 9/11 to discern the precursors of terrorist violence. Recent criticism of the concept of radicalization has been recognized, leading to a 2-pyramids model that responds to the criticism by separating radicalizat...

Humiliation is often cited in attempts to understand the origins of asymmetric conflicts, especially conflicts involving terrorism. This article reviews common usage, expert opinion, and experiences in interpersonal and intergroup conflicts to suggest a construct definition of humiliation as a combination of anger and shame. Following appraisal the...

This Research Note examines two telephone polls (2007, 2011) and three Internet polls (2016) to track opinions of U.S. Muslims relating to the war on terrorism. Results indicate that a small but consistent minority (five to ten percent) justify suicide bombing of civilians in defense of Islam, while those seeing the war on terrorism as a war on Isl...

Terrorism is an extreme form of radicalization. In this ground-breaking and important book, Clark McCauley and Sophia Moskalenko identify and outline twelve mechanisms of political radicalization that can move individuals, groups, and the masses to increased sympathy and support for political violence. Co-authored by two psychologists both acknowl...

In this paper we first put ISIS volunteers in context by considering other examples of Americans citizens fighting in someone else’s war. Next we consider poll results indicating that many U.S. Muslims perceive a war on Islam and prejudice against Muslims; at least ten percent of younger U.S. Muslims justify suicide attacks in defense of Islam. Aga...

A telephone survey of Syrians was conducted by market research company GfK from a European calling centers between May 6, 2016 and May 27, 2016. The survey was completed by 101 Syrian males between the ages of 18 and 71; although 87 percent of participants lived in an area controlled by Bashar al-Assad's forces, 52 percent were Sunni. Questions inc...

Draft report to START for case history of Momin Khawaja

I suggest that social psychologists should stick to studying positive and negative attitudes and give up stigmatizing some attitudes as “prejudice.” I recommend that we avoid assuming that race and ethnicity have no biological foundations, in order to avoid a collision course with modern biology. And I wonder how much difference the target article...

The role of the internet in radicalizing individuals to extremist action is much discussed but remains conceptually and empirically unclear. Here we consider right-wing and jihadist use of the Internet – who posts what and where. We focus on extremist content related to radicalization to violent action, and argue that victim videos and jihad videos...

"The contents of this paper reflect some of the work that Dr. Cabayan and his colleagues are doing to help us understand and comprehend this “intangible power” across a unique enterprise of academicians, scientists, policy intellectuals, current and former Foreign Service, military, and intelligence professionals. Most importantly, their efforts to...

We assessed the degree of discomfort reported by U.S. and Czech Holocaust survivors (Study 1) and Jewish American college students (Study 2) to the prospect of physical proximity to a wide range of contemporary Germans with varying linkages to Nazi Germany, and a range of objects or activities associated with Germany (e.g., riding in a Volkswagen)....

Extending data reported by Mohammed Hafez in 2007, we compiled a database of 1,779 suicide bombers who attempted or completed attacks in Iraq from 2003 through 2010. From 2003 through 2006, monthly totals of suicide bombers show a pattern different from the pattern of non-suicide insurgent attacks, but from 2007 through 2010 the two patterns were s...

Suicide terrorists in recent decades total approximately 3,500. Lankford finds risk factors for suicide for about 40 of these cases. Given that many with risk factors for suicide never attempt suicide, a reasonable estimate might be that one percent of suicide terrorists are suicidal. How to Cite This Article Link to This Abstract Blog This Articl...

Research has shown that there is no profile of individual characteristics of group-based terrorists, but profiling the characteristics of lone wolf terrorists may yet be possible. In this article, we bring together suggestions about what a lone wolf profile might look like. We describe a two-pyramids model that distinguishes radicalization of opini...

I consider some of the interesting issues and ideas raised in three comments on “Testing theories of radicalization in polls of U.S. Muslims” (McCauley). Throughout, I try to highlight the difference between radicalization of mass opinion and radicalization to terrorist action.

Stereotypes – beliefs about group differences – are more complex than is generally assumed. First, we address the multidimensionality of stereotypes under the framework of the Cubic EPA model which suggests that stereotypes are characterized by three dimensions: evaluation, potency, and accuracy. Specific attention is given to the relationship betw...

No matter how unlikely it may seem, radical Leftists and Islamists have come closer in recent years. Drawing on substantial ideological interchange, and operating at both state and non-state levels, the two movements are building a Common Front against the United States and its allies. In this article, we use framing theory to examine the contempor...

Stereotypes are categorical beliefs, which are more or less accurate representations of group differences. Stereotypes are more complex than is generally assumed. First, we address the multidimensionality of stereotypes under the framework of the cubic EPA model, which suggests that stereotypes are characterized by three dimensions: evaluation, pot...

Four national polls of Muslim Americans conducted between 2001 and 2007 were reviewed to find items tapping possible sources of sympathy and justification for jihadist violence: anti‐Muslim discrimination, radical Islam, and economic and political grievance. These items were correlated with items representing three elements of the global‐jihad fram...

The war of ideas against fundamentalist Islam has brought the United States to a new investment in religion.

A 2008 poll of 430 Ottawa Muslims found predominantly negative views of the U.S. war on terrorism, including the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. This poll also assessed approval of Western powers (U.S., Canada, Israel, United Nations) and challengers of Western power (Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hizballah, government of Iran). Surprisingly, attitudes...

This study explored opinions relating to the war on terrorism for seven groups of participants in the 2007 Pew poll of U.S Muslims: African-American Muslims and Muslims born in Iran, Pakistan, other South Asian countries, Arab countries, European countries, and sub-Saharan African countries. For all seven groups, half or more of respondents did not...

Lone-wolf terrorism is a growing concern for security and a puzzle for social science. We describe two very different cases of lone-wolf terrorism: a meek secretary in nineteenth century Russia who attacks a prison governor, and a criminal turned anti-abortion crusader in twenty-first century USA. These cases point to two explanations of how normal...

A public atmosphere that supports violating the human rights of out-group members can enable or even encourage enacting such violations. We present a model that explains such support in terms of 2 underlying components: (a) support for violating general principles of human rights (SVHRG); and (b) lack of trust toward the specific out-group. This mo...

Genocide, mass murder, massacres. The words themselves are chilling, evoking images of the slaughter of countless innocents. What dark impulses lurk in our minds that even today can justify the eradication of thousands and even millions of unarmed human beings caught in the crossfire of political, cultural, or ethnic hostilities? This question lies...

It has long been recognised that telling a better story is an important part of countering the appeal of Global Jihad. The ‘War on Terror’ will be difficult to win if the ‘War on Ideas’ is lost. The mushrooming literature on terrorism notwithstanding, the counter‐narrative issue has been the subject of surprisingly scant academic attention. Part of...

Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, recruited by Jordanian intelligence as a double agent to gather information on high-profile Taliban leaders, blew himself up on 30 December 2009, in Khost province of Afghanistan. He killed seven CIA agents and one Jordanian agent. We distinguish two phases in al-Balawi's trajectory to violence: radicalization of o...

Assuming that the perceived history of a conflict shapes the potential for peace, this study examined the representation of the Israeli–Arab conflict in eight widely used U.S. high school history textbooks. The analysis focused on two issues that are crucial to the understanding of the conflict: (a) the creation of the 1948 Palestinian refugee prob...

In this paper we examine the trajectories of two Armenian terrorist groups: the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) and the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG). Both groups began in the mid-1970s and by the early 1980s had become extremely active. However, shortly afterwards, attacks and fatalities attributed to...

This paper examines recent efforts to conceptualize group-level desistance from terrorism, identifies relevant actors and actions in the competition of terrorist groups and the governments they target, and identifies the multiple forms of desistance that can emerge from this competition. This dynamic model of terrorist and state competition then in...

On 17 November 1997, terrorists affiliated with the Islamic Group massacred 62 people, mostly foreign tourists, in Luxor, one of Egypt's foremost historical sites. Within a year, much of what remained of the Islamic Group had renounced violence, a rare step for a terrorist group. How did this fast desistance come about? Our case study indicates tha...

A representative sample of Israeli Jews (N = 504) completed a survey assessing attitudes towards compromise in the Israeli—Palestinian conflict. Support for compromise was well predicted (R = .63) by a combination of four scales: perception of collective threat from Palestinians, perception of zero-sum relations between Palestinians and Israelis, p...

In this paper we review and extend measures of political mobilization: the increasing extremity of beliefs, feelings, and behaviors in support of inter-group conflict. Building on previous research, we introduce the Activism and Radicalism Intention Scales (ARIS). The Activism Intention Scale assesses readiness to participate in legal and non-viole...