The research assesses the psychological dynamics involved in individuals’ radicalization against the political system.

Professor Giovanni Travaglino (Professor of Social Psychology and Criminology) and Dr Chanki Moon (Lecturer in Psychology at Leeds Becket) have co-authored research assessing the psychological drivers of radicalization across cultures.

The article is titled “The Dependency–Counterdependency Dynamic: Interactive Effects of System Justification and Power-Distance Orientation on Radicalization against the Political System”. It reports a study of more than 2500 participants demonstrating that individuals’ tendency to justify political and social arrangements can sometimes be linked to increased radicalization. The association between system-justifying tendencies and increased radicalization emerges when individuals feel distant from authorities, and perceive hierarchical relationships as fixed. The study finds evidence for this dynamic in Italy, the UK, the US and South Korea.

The open-access article can be found here. A summary of the findings can be read here.