People who think the world lacks meaning are more prone to political violence
People who view the world as devoid of meaning are more likely to support political violence. A new study suggests that simple exercises to find everyday meaning could help reduce these violent extremist intentions.
Individuals who view the world as lacking inherent meaning are more inclined to engage in acts of violent extremism, according to a study published in Psychology of Violence. Researchers led by Daniel W. Snook, an assistant professor of experimental psychology at Florida Gulf Coast University, examined the impact of "primal world beliefs" on political violence.
These primal beliefs encompass the fundamental assumptions people hold about the nature of reality. Snook expressed curiosity about whether these broad worldview assumptions were linked to violent extremism, which he defined as violence committed for religious, political, or social motives. Previous research primarily focused on specific ideological beliefs, such as white supremacy or strict adherence to Sharia law.
However, Snook sought to explore connections between general worldviews and violent intentions. In 2021, the research team devised a 10-day exercise involving photography and journaling about meaningful elements in participants' lives. This intervention resulted in reduced violent extremism intentions among the participants. The study involved four surveys conducted with adults from various ideological backgrounds in the United States, including Democrats, Republicans, environmental activists, and Black Lives Matter supporters.
The researchers measured 22 primal world beliefs across the first three surveys and focused on the three most significant predictors in the fourth survey. Violent intentions were assessed by having participants rate their agreement with statements about using force, including physical violence, to further their group's goals. The "meaningful world belief" emerged as the strongest predictor of violent intentions, with stronger associations observed among Republicans compared to other groups.
This belief pertains to the idea that most things, including people, generally matter. Individuals who scored lower on this measure, indicating a belief that the world is devoid of meaning, were more likely to endorse violent extremism. To validate these findings among actual offenders, the researchers assessed 125 men incarcerated in Kazakhstan, including 64 convicted of jihadist terrorism and 61 convicted of non-ideological violent crimes.
The terrorist group demonstrated lower scores on the meaningful world belief scale compared to the non-terrorist violent offenders. This suggests that a perceived lack of meaning in the world is associated with ideological violence in real-world contexts.
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