The Three N’s Of Radicalization: Necessity, Storytelling And Social Network
Radicalization is a social and psychological process involving an ever-increasing commitment to an extremist political or religious ideology. In other words, to become radicalized is to adopt political or religious beliefs that are not shared by the majority of people. But how does radicalization occur?
There are three psychological forces, the combination of which can explain radicalization. They form the three N’s of radicalization. The first of these forces is linked to the necessities, to the lacks which give rise to the motivation to act in order to obtain something. The second force is storytelling, the ideology that promotes beliefs that define the world and establish how to behave. The last force is the social network, or in other words, the people around us.
Maria has unconditional love for animals and cannot stand cruelty to them. She is interested in the actions of different animal rights groups, but finds that these actions have little impact on society. One day, she feels the desire to engage in political action and falls in love with the leader of her group.
His thinking gradually becomes polarized and, finally, anything becomes possible to protect the lives of animals. Along with the rest of the group, Maria sabotages the government as well as industrial facilities that she says have violated animal rights.
From a young age, Vincent has been interested in philosophy and socio-political issues. One day, his friends tell him about an international movement of social protest which militates in the main cities of the world. He then joined this movement with some friends. Vincent and his comrades were eventually arrested after stoning police officers who tried to contain the wave of protesters demanding social justice.
On a lonely January morning, Abu crossed the Turkish border into the Islamic State. He felt like a man with nothing to lose. Freshly divorced from his wife and struggling with a severe addiction to alcohol and cigarettes, he was not very fit and definitely not fit to fight either, but the prospect of a post as a writer for the Islamic State within the caliphate could allow him to wash off his “immoral slate” and become a good Muslim.
For radicalization to take place, a necessity must appear. This necessity has been identified as the search of importance ; people want to make a difference, to be important, to be someone. Thus, when an opportunity presents itself to gain importance, or when the latter is lost and it is threatened, the search for meaning is awakened. However, prominence can be gained in many non-violent ways.
In our previously presented examples, Maria lost importance by feeling helpless in the face of animal abuse. Vincent tries not to lose his importance and when his friends join the movement, he joins it too. For his part, Abu seeks to gain prominence thanks to the conditions offered to him by the Islamic State.
In order for the search for significance to opt for violent means, it is necessary that the narrative or the ideology of the person allow violence. Of all the options that subjects consider to gain prominence, violence must come first and, moreover, be legitimate for their beliefs. If ideology does not allow violence, other means are used and radicalization will not take place.
Coming back to our examples, Maria radicalizes her thinking after joining the group, going so far as to accept that violence is the only way to defend animals. The movement that Vincent joins supports and advocates the use of illegal acts in favor of social justice, which he ends up accepting. For Abu, the ideology of the Islamic State allows violence in order to establish an Islamist caliphate.
Finally, something that the three characters in our examples share is that they are not alone; for you to be important, others must make you feel important. The group is the one who, in a certain way, gives importance to people. Therefore, the last ingredient for radicalization to occur is the social network. In most cases, people radicalize with others.
Maria fell in love with a radicalized man, Vincent radicalized with his friends, and Abu joined a terrorist organization. Each of them radicalized in a different way, but all have something in common: they sought to be important, they welcomed the narrative that justified the violence and relied on a group to accompany them in this radicalization.
Our thoughts The Radicalization Pyramid is a theoretical model that helps us interpret and understand why people radicalize. According to …
