Advancing Understanding of the Emotional, Cognitive, and Attitudinal Facilitators of Extremist Misogyny

• In Event: Right-Wing Pressure on Minority Civil Liberties - Sponsored by the Division of International Criminology

Abstract

Recently, experts on extremism indicated that misogynist violence would expand and become a substantial threat (Hoffman and Ware, 2020; Yang, 2022). However, the lack of systematic data about extremist ideological misogyny impedes attempts to develop effective theoretical and analytical frameworks for understanding ideological misogynist violence. Moreover, limited efforts were conducted to engage in experimental methodological tools to further our understanding of the specific psychological processes that can lead young men to embrace extremist misogynist views and behaviors. Hence, the current research addresses gaps in data on and our understanding of the psychological dynamics and radicalization push factors associated with misogynist ideological violence by engaging in an extensive collection and analysis of data on (a) past perpetrators, (b) individuals at-risk (c) social networks of members of extremist misogynist communities, and (d) discursive mechanisms employed within online violent misogynist subcultures. Our analyses illuminate the individual and group-level psychological factors/processes associated with the adoption of views and behaviors of (violent) extremist misogyny, as well as how discursive online mechanisms facilitate such processes of radicalization.

Authors

• Arie Perliger, University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Catherine Jarry, University of Massachusetts Lowell