The persistence of extremist violence and its societal implications raise critical questions about its impact on individuals with radical and extremist attitudes. This study investigates whether exposure to extremist violence reinforces these attitudes or triggers a backlash effect that reduces them. Drawing on theories of radicalization, I examine how information about the prevalence of extremist violence influences right-wing, left-wing, and religious radical attitudes.
I conducted a survey experiment with 8,200 participants from Germany, France, Greece, and Hungary. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of eight experimental groups. Each experimental group was presented with information about the prevalence of extremist violence, with varying emphasis on the type of extremism and the attack or attacker. Extremist attitudes were measured before and after the experiment using scales on right-wing, left-wing, and religious radical attitudes.
The results show that information about extremist violence significantly reduces radical attitudes, thus providing evidence for a backlash effect. Demographic factors moderated these effects: women and Muslims were more likely to reduce their extremist attitudes, whereas older, more educated, and politically right-leaning participants were less responsive. These findings were robust across analyses for different types of extremism (right-wing, left-wing, religious) and checks on randomization and response patterns.
This study underscores the interplay between extremist violence and attitudes, revealing potential pathways for de-radicalization and the critical role of institutional responses to extremist violence. Because the findings focus on short-term effects, future research should explore long-term effects through longitudinal designs.