Extremist groups across the political spectrum follow a single identical psychological sequence of radicalization regardless of what they actually believe.
April 25, 2026
Original Paper
Different ideology, same psychology: Evidence for shared psychological pathways to violence across three extremist movements
PsyArXiv · bx7pn_v1
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The Takeaway
Data from over 700,000 messages across three different extremist movements shows that ideology is largely irrelevant to the process of becoming violent. Psychological pathways to radicalization remain the same even when the underlying beliefs are total opposites. Experts previously focused on the specific toxic ideas that lead to harm. This finding suggests that the structure of the radicalization process itself is the primary driver of behavior. Interventions should focus on these universal psychological stages rather than trying to debate the specific merits of a group's political or religious manifesto.
From the abstract
Violent extremist movements differ dramatically in ideology, target audiences, and rhetorical style, yet converging evidence suggests that they may share underlying psychological processes of radicalisation towards violent outcomes. Testing this hypothesis at scale has been limited by the difficulty of simultaneously measuring ideological content and psychological processes across multiple movements. Here, we analyse 742,264 messages from 42 Telegram channels spanning three ideologically distinc