Words Matter: Examining Communication-based Strategies That Facilitate and Counter Radicalization

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

Responding to sophisticated propaganda campaigns of extremist and terrorist actors, policymakers increasingly emphasize the importance of communication-based interventions to counter and prevent radicalization (C/PVE). However, research addressing this problem space is still in its infancy. This panel brings together an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars who present a broad spectrum of novel insights. We draw on experimental studies and qualitative research, as well as data from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Malaysia, highlighting directions for theory, method, and practice. Doing so, we elaborate on the use of communication-based strategies to facilitate and prevent radicalization – both topics represent two sides of the same coin. Specifically, we discuss whether exposure to violent narratives, especially those with a violent sub-text rather than explicit directives to use violence, do indeed mobilize individuals to take action. Moreover, we explore how counter-narrative interventions – a popular type of communication-based C/PVE strategy – are implemented in the field, and the extent to which proposed theories of change relate to empirical evidence from psychology and communication science. Finally, investigating the impact of attitudinal inoculation – another type of communication-based C/PVE intervention – we demonstrate first evidence regarding the (lack of) long-term impact, which raises questions for researchers and practitioners.

Sub Unit

• Area III. Types of Offending / 22. State Crime, Political Crime, and Terrorism

Individual Presentations

• Crying Havoc: The Use of Narrative Subtext to Promote Radicalization, Hate, and Violence - Kurt Braddock, American University

• Counter-narratives in Practice: Examining Public Campaigns in Malaysia - Aishah Mokhtar, University College London

• The Puzzle of Inoculating Against Radicalization: Demonstrating a Lack of Longitudinal Effects and Unclear Underlying Processes - Sandy Schumann, University College London; Michael Barton, University College London

Chair

• Kurt Braddock, American University