Relationships between basic psychological needs and violent extremist attitudes: The mediating role of actively open-minded thinking

Abstract

Although violent extremist attitudes promote extremist violence, little is known about the process through which these attitudes develop. Therefore, the present study attempted to advance knowledge of their development by exploring the relationships between three basic psychological needs (competence, relatedness, and autonomy), four dimensions of actively open-minded thinking (dogmatism, fact resistance, liberalism, and belief personification), and violent extremist attitudes. This study also aimed at examining whether the dimensions of actively open-minded thinking could account for the relationships between psychological needs and violent extremist attitudes. Five hundred nine adult volunteers (254 females and 255 males, Mage = 33.20, SDage = 12.31) answered online questionnaires that assessed psychological needs, actively open-minded thinking, and violent extremist attitudes. I built and analyzed two structural equation models, and the results revealed that relatedness satisfaction negatively predicted violent extremist attitudes through experiencing lower levels of belief personification (i.e., dichotomized mode of thinking opposing “me/us” to “them”) (Model 1), while relatedness frustration positively predicted violent extremist attitudes through experiencing enhanced sense of belief personification (Model 2). Finally, this study highlighted the importance of satisfying people’s need for relatedness and helping them counteract the development of binary attitudes toward others, as preventive strategies against radicalization to violence.

Keywords

• need for relatedness
• critical thinking
• belief personification
• violence