Social psychologists have long been intent on explaining the behaviour of groups - especially those which are violent. The commonly held belief has been that people lose their individuality when they join a group which allows them to indulge in behaviour they wouldn't normally consider.
Understanding Extremist Groups
The proliferation of terrorist activity in recent years has seen this explanation forced into the public consciousness. The actions of the London Bombers in 2005 are a case in point. Experts claimed the four bombers were close friends who had lost touch with society and their own will.
A international team of psychologists led by Dr. Tom Postmes of the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) has questioned the validity of the shambling zombie group member - with surprising results. The team, including Gamze Baray (Simon Fraser University, Canada) and Jolanda Jetten (University of Queensland, Australia) conducted two studies among young members of the Turkish Nationalist Action Party, an extreme right-wing party with a nationalist and Islamic agenda.
Sense of Individuality
The group was chosen for two reasons explains Dr Postmes. "Its unofficial arm, the 'grey wolves', has a history of violence and other activities that could be labelled 'extremist'," he says. The second reason was that it was suggested by his Ph.D. student and first author, Gamze Baray. "She was intrigued because she knew several members of this group and to her 'they had no sense of individuality.'" This made the results all the more surprising.
"Their personal sense of self is, in many ways but certainly not entirely, informed by their group membership," says Dr Postmes. "At the same time, they have a much stronger sense of personal identity, and they feel as independent of the group as any other person."
The twofold study, which is currently in press with the British Journal of Social Psychology required participants to complete a questionnaire. The first comprised 124 males - 66 were members of the Nationalist youth organization and 58 had no prior affiliation with the nationalist organization. The second study, comprising 95 nationalists and 82 non-affiliated students, asked the respondents to regard their reflection in a mirror whilst answering questions.
Though such a small sample can in no way be generalized to groups in general, the research does raise important questions. The assumption that people who do not normally display extreme or anti-normative behaviour must have their personality altered or transformed in order to make them capable of carrying out extremist acts can no longer be made with certainty. Popular notions of the individual mindlessly succumbing to the will of the leader "turns groups into an amorphous collective threat" which is "unhelpful at a number of levels".
"We believe it is not simply the case that personal identity vanishes in groups," says Postmes. Nor do they argue that the group "mind" takes over. "We believe that in groups – which have a clear ideology and a clear normative framework – social identity becomes more interdependent with personal identity."
"If the ideologies and philosophies associated with certain groups' social identity can succeed in regulating personal identity (e.g., as in the way in which the Ten Commandments seek to regulate human behaviour and thought) then tension between personal and social identity need not exist at all."
Lack of Empirical Evidence
The seemingly widespread lack of understanding about the individual members of extremist groups comes from the lack of empirical evidence. Though this research is a step in the right direction, the participants involved were still only those willing to be experimented upon. Whether the results would hold true for those less forthcoming is a question which will likely remain unanswered.
Justin Schamotta - Justin was born in South Africa, raised in the Welsh Valleys and now resides in Brighton. He has been co-editor of Bulb magazine, deputy ...
