Climates Against Violent Extremism: RCT with University Students in Bangladesh

• In Event: Strategies to Prevent Violence and Extremism: Latest Evidence and New Frontiers

Abstract

Countering violent extremism is fraught by the fact that such extremism is, by its nature, rare, and strategies that target in an aggressive and coarse manner may do more to alienate people than identify or temper those who are genuinely at-risk. Working with university students in Bangladesh, this paper reports on a randomized controlled trial of a strategy to avoid such pitfalls by cultivating a climate against extremism through positive reinforcement of tolerance and anti-violence norms. Modeled on “bystander intervention” strategies, students are given training that sharpens their awareness of extremism-antecedent behaviors and provides them with tools to defuse situations with minimal risk to themselves or others. We find that the program led to stronger norms of tolerance, although much of this improvement appears attributable to the nature of the social interactions created by the program rather than the curriculum per se. The program increased participants’ skill in dissecting scenarios of aggression, eagerness and confidence to act, and effectiveness of intervention in perpetrator-victim scenarios. Overall, the results suggest promise for an indirect, climate-based strategy.

Authors

• Peter B. Vining, Naval Postgraduate School

• Michael J. Gilligan, New York University

• Cyrus Samii, New York University