The relationship of extremism and radicalization to psychopathy and other socially negative personality traits
There is an interesting question about the role of the individual's personality in extremism (i.e., support for the use of violence in achieving political goals) and in radicalization, including aggressive religious radicalization. In this issue, it is especially worth considering the fact that psychopathic tendencies are the strongest predictor of violent behavior, and thus, it can be assumed that they explain these phenomena to some extent as well. And a number of studies have explored this issue.
For example, one of them examined the extent to which the presence of a Militant Extremist Mind-Set in an individual could be explained by psychopathy, sadism, and Disintegration (psychosis proneness). In a sample of 306 students, sadistic and psychopathic tendencies were shown to be associated with Proviolence (i.e., support for violence as a means for achieving goals). Also, psychopathy and Disintegration were linked to the belief that the world is a corrupt and vile place. In addition, Disintegration was a good predictor of an individual's propensity to rely on supernatural forces as a rational justification for extremist acts. These results were replicated when a similar study was conducted on a sample of 147 male prisoners[1].
In another study conducted on a sample of 643 women, it was shown that those with high scores of the dark triad traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) had the highest levels of radicalized cognitions and behaviors and were prone to aggressive religious radicalization[2]. Also, in a sample of 299 students, the positive association of the dark triad traits with Proviolence and support for extremism was confirmed[3]. The significant positive association between psychopathy and extremism is supported by another study conducted on 954 volunteers[4]. In addition, in a sample of 469 students, it was found that psychopathy and narcissism directly explained Proviolence, whereas psychopathy and Machiavellianism directly explained religious radical behavior[5].
As we can see, psychopathy, as well as other socially negative personality traits such as narcissism, Machiavellianism, sadism, and Disintegration, are factors that, according to many studies, predict an individual's propensity for Proviolence, extremism, and radicalization. It is necessary to be aware of this in order to understand the problem of such behavior better and to search for possible methods to solve it more effectively.