Arie Kruglanski (editor) - The Psychology of Extremism: A Motivational Perspective

This ground-breaking book introduces a new model of extremism that emphasizes motivational imbalance among individual needs, offering a unique multidisciplinary exploration of extreme behaviors relating to terrorism, dieting, sports, love, addictions, and money.

In popular discourse, the term extremism has come to mean largely violent extremism, but this is just one of many different types: extreme sports, extreme diets, political and religious extremisms, extreme self-interest, extreme attitudes, extreme devotion to a cause, addiction to substances, or behavioral addiction (to videogames, shopping, pornography, sex, and work). But do these descriptions have a deeper meaning? Do they reveal a common psychological dynamic? Or are they merely a mode of things about phenomena that have little in common? Bringing together world-leading psychologists from a variety of disciplines, the book uses a brand-new model to examine different expressions of extremism, at different levels of analysis (brain, hormones, and behavior), in order not merely to describe such behaviors but also to explain their occurrence, and the conditions under which they may be likely to emerge.

Also including suggestions for ways in which extremism could be counteracted and to what extent it appears to be harmful to individuals and society, this is essential reading for students and academics in psychology and behavioral sciences.

Arie W. Kruglanski is Distinguished University Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, USA. He has received the National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Award, the Donald Campbell Award for Outstanding Contributions to Social Psychology, the University of Maryland Regents Award for Scholarship and Creativity, and the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the Society for Experimental Social Psychology. Kruglanski has published over 400 articles, chapters, and books on motivated social cognition; served on NAS panels on the social and behavioral aspects of terrorism; and co-founded the National Center of Excellence for the Study of Terrorism and the Response to Terrorism. He was the PI on a MINERVA grant from the Office of Naval Research on the determinants of radicalization and is presently the PI on a MINERVA grant on Syrian refugees potential for radicalization.

Catalina Kopetz is Associate Professor of Psychology at Wayne State University, USA. Her research focuses on the mechanisms that underlie multiple goal pursuit and management of goal conflict and their implications for risk-taking. She has published in prestigious journals spanning social and clinical psychology, prevention sciences, psychopharmacology, and behavioral and brain sciences, as well as journals appealing to a broader audience, such as Perspectives in Psychological Science, Current Directions in Psychological Science, and Psychological Review. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (including NIDA, NCI, and NIAAA).

Ewa Szumowska is a researcher at the Social Psychology Unit in the Institute of Psychology at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, and a member of the Center for Social Cognitive Studies Krakow, Association for Psychological Science, and the European Association of Social Psychology. She is an author and co-author of scientific publications in journals, such as Psychological Review, Psychological Inquiry, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Cognition, and Personality and Individual Differences. She studies motivation, information processing, multiple goal pursuit, and extremism.

Series Editors:

Arie W. Kruglanski, University of Maryland at College Park

Joseph P. Forgas, University of New South Wales

Frontiers of Social Psychology is a series of domain-specific handbooks. Each volume provides readers with an overview of the most recent theoretical, methodological, and practical developments in a substantive area of social psychology, in greater depth than is possible in general social psychology handbooks. The editors and contributors are all internationally renowned scholars whose work is at the cutting edge of research.

Scholarly, yet accessible, the volumes in the Frontiers series are an essential resource for senior undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers, and practitioners and are suitable as texts in advanced courses in specific subareas of social psychology.

Published Titles

Social Judgment and Decision Making, Krueger

Intergroup Conflicts and their Resolution, Bar-Tal

Social Motivation, Dunning

Social Cognition, Strack & Frster

Social Psychology of Consumer Behavior, Wnke

For continually updated information about published and forthcoming titles in the Frontiers of Social Psychology series, please visit: www.routledge.com/psychology/series/FSP

Edited by
Arie W. Kruglanski, Catalina Kopetz, and Ewa Szumowska

First published 2022
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2022 Taylor & Francis

The right of Arie W. Kruglanski, Catalina Kopetz and Ewa Szumowska to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kruglanski, Arie W., editor. | Kopetz, Catalina E., editor. | Szumowska, Ewa, 1986 editor.

Title: The psychology of extremism : a motivational perspective / edited by Arie W. Kruglanski, Catalina Kopetz and Ewa Szumowska.

Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021016077 (print) | LCCN 2021016078 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367467623 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367467609 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003030898 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Extreme behavior (Psychology) | Motivation (Psychology)

Classification: LCC BF637.E97 P79 2022 (print) | LCC BF637.E97 (ebook) | DDC 153.1/534dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021016077

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021016078

ISBN: 978-0-367-46762-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-46760-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-03089-8 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003030898

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