The Emergence of Violent Extremism: Threats to Social Identity and Psychological Motivations Underlying Identity-Defining Extreme Aggression

<p>Building on the framework of social identity (Tajfel & Turner, 1979, 1986) and uncertainty-identity (Hogg, 2007, 2012, 2021a, 2025) theories, the following research analyzed threats to social identity and psychological motivations underlying identity-defining extreme aggression. The two main motivations associated with social identification a) self-esteem via collective enhancement and b) epistemic knowledge via uncertainty-reduction are first reviewed and subsequently incorporated into the proposed empirical design. The role of identity-uncertainty (i.e. Study 1) and superordinate identity-uncertainty (i.e. Study 2) in social identity-defining processes toward extreme aggression were also examined (Hogg & Wagoner, 2016; Wagoner & Hogg, 2016; Hogg & Rast, 2022; Wagoner, Antonini, Hogg, Barbieri, & Talamo, 2018; Wagoner, Barreto, and Rinella, 2019). Respectively, the assessments of threats to a) identity status and b) distinctiveness were analyzed in Study 1 (N = 157) and threats to a) superordinate identity status and b) superordinate identity distinctiveness were analyzed in Study 2 (N = 152). A literature review has been provided on extremism and the social psychological conditions under which esteem and uncertainty can lead to violence and other extremist behaviors that are identity defining. Based on prior research, it was hypothesized that individuals with increased perceptions of identity distinctiveness threat and identity status threat would experience greater uncertainty and as a result show a greater tendency toward extreme acts of aggression. Initial tests in Study 1 suggest an effect of status on uncertainty in the general identity setting. Initial tests from Study 2 suggest distinctiveness’s effect on uncertainty in the shared identity setting. Subsequent findings from Study 1 suggest an effect of status threat on extreme aggression such that when ingroup members are threatened about how the ingroup’s status is perceived in general, ingroup members are motivated to adopt extreme aggressive responses to protect the status of the ingroup’s identity. Subsequent findings from Study 2 suggest an effect of distinctiveness on extreme aggression such that when subgroup members are threatened about how distinctive the subgroup is from the superordinate group; subgroup members are motivated to adopt extreme aggressive responses to protect the distinctiveness of the subgroup when there is a shared identity with the superordinate group.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Psychology, PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Social Science, Politics, and Evaluation

Year dc:date.available

2026

Author dc:creator

• Shockley, Austin Leigh

Contributors dc:contributor

• Milan Obaidi
• Eusebio M. Alvaro
• P. Wesley Schultz

• collective enhancement
• identity-defining behaviors
• identity-uncertainty
• social identity motivations
• threats
• violent extremism
• Social Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1124

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-2146