Propaganda in an insecure, unstructured world: How psychological uncertainty and authoritarian attitudes shape the evaluation of right-wing extremist internet propaganda

Q2 Social Sciences
Diana Rieger, L. Frischlich, G. Bente
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引用次数: 22

Abstract

The amount of uploaded extremist propaganda on the internet is increasing. In particular, right-wing extremist as well as Islamic extremist groups take advantage of the opportunities presented by the internet to spread their ideas to worldwide masses. Both tackle in-group specific topics and address their audiences in their respective political, national or religious identities. Several factors, such as higher levels of authoritarian value orientations and threatening life situations (such as existential threats or psychological uncertainty) have been found to shape people’s reactions towards radical groups as well as to propaganda. The current study investigated whether the response to extremist propaganda videos (namely, aversion felt for the video and the perceived persuasiveness of the video) is shaped by an individual’s authoritarian attitudes and psychological uncertainty and whether this is a global process or in-group specific. Further, it considered the effects of exposure to extremist propaganda on the identification with one’s in-group. In a laboratory experiment, German students were confronted with a right-wing extremist and an Islamic extremist video after manipulating their level of uncertainty (high vs. low levels of psychological uncertainty).  The results confirmed that the interaction between authoritarianism and psychological uncertainty affected the evaluation of right-wing extremist videos addressing participants’ national in-group. Under conditions of uncertainty, authoritarianism predicted less aversion and a higher persuasiveness of these videos. Further, psychological uncertainty increased the identification with participants’ German nationality, irrespective of authoritarian attitudes. Notably, the effect was in-group bound: The same effect was not found for Islamic extremist propaganda referring to a religious out-group. The results are discussed regarding the potential of propaganda to foster behavioral intentions and engagement in extremist groups in specific threatening situations.
不安全、非结构化世界中的宣传:心理不确定性和威权态度如何影响对右翼极端主义互联网宣传的评价
在互联网上上传极端主义宣传的数量正在增加。特别是,右翼极端分子和伊斯兰极端组织利用互联网提供的机会向全世界传播他们的思想。两者都处理群体内的特定主题,并以各自的政治、民族或宗教身份向听众发表讲话。有几个因素,如更高水平的专制价值取向和威胁性的生活状况(如存在威胁或心理不确定性),已经被发现塑造了人们对激进团体和宣传的反应。当前的研究调查了对极端主义宣传视频的反应(即对视频的厌恶感和对视频的感知说服力)是否由个人的专制态度和心理不确定性所塑造,以及这是一个全球过程还是群体内特定的过程。此外,它还考虑了接触极端主义宣传对个人内部群体认同的影响。在一项实验室实验中,德国学生在操纵他们的不确定性水平(高水平与低水平的心理不确定性)后,面对一个右翼极端分子和一个伊斯兰极端分子的视频。结果证实,威权主义与心理不确定性之间的相互作用影响了右翼极端主义视频对参与者民族内群体的评价。在不确定的条件下,威权主义预测这些视频的厌恶程度会降低,说服力会增强。此外,心理不确定性增加了参与者对德国国籍的认同,而不考虑专制态度。值得注意的是,这种效果是受群体内限制的:伊斯兰极端主义宣传提到宗教外群体时,没有发现同样的效果。研究结果讨论了宣传在特定威胁情况下培养极端主义团体行为意图和参与的潜力。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Journal for Deradicalization
Journal for Deradicalization Social Sciences-Political Science and International Relations
CiteScore
1.90
自引率
0.00%
发文量
1
审稿时长
8 weeks
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