Researchers develop new tool to investigate psychological traits of violent extremism

The Extremist Archetypes Scale is a brand-new assessment tool that researchers have created and verified to help distinguish between various psychological characteristics that are found among people engaged in violent extremism. People who join violent extremist groups may differ widely in their motivations, knowledge, personalities, and other factors. Next, the researchers conducted several analyses to help validate the Extremist Archetypes Scale. They tested associations between people's scores on the scale and their scores on several well-established scales that evaluate personality traits, sociopolitical attitudes, ideologies, prejudice, and ethnic identification. In addition, they validated the scale's applicability across diverse instances related to gender, political orientation, age, and ethnicity.