Kruglanski (2018)
Tuesday, 9 December 2025 14:16
No war against terror is likely to succeed without understanding what attracts thousands of individuals to such
acts, and how to curb their enthusiasm about a career in extremism.
The "hard" approach to combatting violent extremism must be complemented by a "softer" strategy aimed at
dimming the luster of ideological violence and deterring individuals from succumbing to its allure.
The underlying force to which we attribute the appeal of extreme behavior is the basic human desire to
matter and have meaning in one's life.
We refer to this as the quest for personal significance.
We treat violent extremism as a specific form of extreme behavior, defines as "exceeding the ordinary, usual
or expected".
From the psychological perspective, extremism is a consequence of a motivational imbalance: the tendency of
individuals to privilege one need at the expense of others.
Differentiation between obsessive passion, wherein one is totally focused on a given concern, and harmonious
passion, wherein in one's striving toward a specific activity coexist peacefully with other preoccupations.
Our own approach is based on the assumption that humans possess a set of basic needs, whose fulfillment
promotes most persons' sense of well-being.
Individuals may strive to satisfy all of these needs, but the needs also constrain each other, such that
behaviors that gratify one need while frustrating another will be avoided.
Existence of several basic needs and the constraints they exercise on one another produces moderation, a
state of mind where extreme means are eschewed.
However, in some situations, or for some individuals, alternative concerns may be suppressed; they may
become less salient, recede in importance, and cease to exercise constraints upon behavior.
This circumstance allows extreme behaviors to be liberated and enacted.
It follows that if some of those basic needs are unattended to, people might experience distress and be drawn
to restoring the motivational balance, only a minority would exhibit extremism of various kinds.
Too, and for the same reason, engagement in extremism (for most people) should be a rather transient phase
in one's life.
The Significance Quest Theory: 3 basic ingredients
The Need
All individuals have a fundamental desire to matter, to merit respect, and to "be someone".
Akin to theories of meaning making that examine the process of restoring meaning in the wake of negative,
stressful, or traumatic circumstances.
Meaning is also appraised situationally.
Meaning making theories propose that when situations induce a discrepancy between global and situational
meaning, a sense of frustration is induced, and behavior is enacted to regain that meaning.
We label such circumstances as events that occasion a loss of significance.
Individuals experience an affront to their social identity, and hence a personal loss of significance as members
of a disparaged group.
Still, sometime the quest for significance is not induced by a single traumatic experience; rather, it may build
over time and be induced by an accumulation of small realizations that a person or their group have been
subjected to systemic discrimination and abuse.
, We label such circumstances as events that occasion a loss of significance.
Individuals experience an affront to their social identity, and hence a personal loss of significance as members
of a disparaged group.
Still, sometime the quest for significance is not induced by a single traumatic experience; rather, it may build
over time and be induced by an accumulation of small realizations that a person or their group have been
subjected to systemic discrimination and abuse.
Some well-to-do individuals have been drawn to extremism because they are tempted by the tantalizing
promise of immense significance.
In this case, the discrepancy results from unfulfilled high aspirations.
The Narrative
Meaning frameworks that provide individuals with a sense of confidence and understanding of their reality.
Meaning frameworks not only describe how the world generally operates, but also define worthy goals to
pursue. Through commitment to those goals, an individual affirms her identity.
In the context of political extremism, an ideological narrative fulfills this function by describing a collective
cause that can earn an individual the significance they desire, as well as an appropriate means with which to
pursue that cause.
Because significance is defined uniquely in different cultures, ways of attaining it are spelled out in a cultural
narrative that conditions significance on upholding and defending the group's unique values.
At times of peace and relative tranquility, such values typically consist of peaceful contributions to society.
The role of the narrative is to pinpoint a preferred course of action from among several possible options and
to legitimize that course as the best method for addressing an individual's aroused need for significance.
The Network
Refers to the group of people who subscribe to the narrative.
Its manner of contributing to an individual's radicalization is twofold:
- Contact with such network makes a violence justifying narrative cognitively accessible to a person.
- The network's support for the narrative validates it and serves as proof of its veracity and soundness.
Individuals who both experience a quest for significance and are embedded in a social network that subscribes
to a violence justifying narrative will be more likely to engage in violent extremism than individuals who
experience only one, or neither, of those.
Such individuals' need for significance may flare up chronically, prompting them to occasionally experience
powerful impulses to engage in significance-promoting behaviors.
Individuals may differ stably in persuadability, that is, their readiness to accept the conclusions or persuasive
messages with which they are confronted.
In part, this could be a function of expertise in a domain, so that experts may be less likely than nonexperts to
be persuaded by communications contrary to their own beliefs.
Too, in some situations individuals may be more persuadable than others.
Some personality traits may dispose individuals to be particularly affected by social influence.
Individuals might subsequently gravitate to views that are commonly shared within their social network.
Quest for Significance and Violent Extremism
Attackers who exhibited greater significance quest killed and wounded more people.
Tuesday, 9 December 2025 14:16
No war against terror is likely to succeed without understanding what attracts thousands of individuals to such
acts, and how to curb their enthusiasm about a career in extremism.
The "hard" approach to combatting violent extremism must be complemented by a "softer" strategy aimed at
dimming the luster of ideological violence and deterring individuals from succumbing to its allure.
The underlying force to which we attribute the appeal of extreme behavior is the basic human desire to
matter and have meaning in one's life.
We refer to this as the quest for personal significance.
We treat violent extremism as a specific form of extreme behavior, defines as "exceeding the ordinary, usual
or expected".
From the psychological perspective, extremism is a consequence of a motivational imbalance: the tendency of
individuals to privilege one need at the expense of others.
Differentiation between obsessive passion, wherein one is totally focused on a given concern, and harmonious
passion, wherein in one's striving toward a specific activity coexist peacefully with other preoccupations.
Our own approach is based on the assumption that humans possess a set of basic needs, whose fulfillment
promotes most persons' sense of well-being.
Individuals may strive to satisfy all of these needs, but the needs also constrain each other, such that
behaviors that gratify one need while frustrating another will be avoided.
Existence of several basic needs and the constraints they exercise on one another produces moderation, a
state of mind where extreme means are eschewed.
However, in some situations, or for some individuals, alternative concerns may be suppressed; they may
become less salient, recede in importance, and cease to exercise constraints upon behavior.
This circumstance allows extreme behaviors to be liberated and enacted.
It follows that if some of those basic needs are unattended to, people might experience distress and be drawn
to restoring the motivational balance, only a minority would exhibit extremism of various kinds.
Too, and for the same reason, engagement in extremism (for most people) should be a rather transient phase
in one's life.
The Significance Quest Theory: 3 basic ingredients
The Need
All individuals have a fundamental desire to matter, to merit respect, and to "be someone".
Akin to theories of meaning making that examine the process of restoring meaning in the wake of negative,
stressful, or traumatic circumstances.
Meaning is also appraised situationally.
Meaning making theories propose that when situations induce a discrepancy between global and situational
meaning, a sense of frustration is induced, and behavior is enacted to regain that meaning.
We label such circumstances as events that occasion a loss of significance.
Individuals experience an affront to their social identity, and hence a personal loss of significance as members
of a disparaged group.
Still, sometime the quest for significance is not induced by a single traumatic experience; rather, it may build
over time and be induced by an accumulation of small realizations that a person or their group have been
subjected to systemic discrimination and abuse.
, We label such circumstances as events that occasion a loss of significance.
Individuals experience an affront to their social identity, and hence a personal loss of significance as members
of a disparaged group.
Still, sometime the quest for significance is not induced by a single traumatic experience; rather, it may build
over time and be induced by an accumulation of small realizations that a person or their group have been
subjected to systemic discrimination and abuse.
Some well-to-do individuals have been drawn to extremism because they are tempted by the tantalizing
promise of immense significance.
In this case, the discrepancy results from unfulfilled high aspirations.
The Narrative
Meaning frameworks that provide individuals with a sense of confidence and understanding of their reality.
Meaning frameworks not only describe how the world generally operates, but also define worthy goals to
pursue. Through commitment to those goals, an individual affirms her identity.
In the context of political extremism, an ideological narrative fulfills this function by describing a collective
cause that can earn an individual the significance they desire, as well as an appropriate means with which to
pursue that cause.
Because significance is defined uniquely in different cultures, ways of attaining it are spelled out in a cultural
narrative that conditions significance on upholding and defending the group's unique values.
At times of peace and relative tranquility, such values typically consist of peaceful contributions to society.
The role of the narrative is to pinpoint a preferred course of action from among several possible options and
to legitimize that course as the best method for addressing an individual's aroused need for significance.
The Network
Refers to the group of people who subscribe to the narrative.
Its manner of contributing to an individual's radicalization is twofold:
- Contact with such network makes a violence justifying narrative cognitively accessible to a person.
- The network's support for the narrative validates it and serves as proof of its veracity and soundness.
Individuals who both experience a quest for significance and are embedded in a social network that subscribes
to a violence justifying narrative will be more likely to engage in violent extremism than individuals who
experience only one, or neither, of those.
Such individuals' need for significance may flare up chronically, prompting them to occasionally experience
powerful impulses to engage in significance-promoting behaviors.
Individuals may differ stably in persuadability, that is, their readiness to accept the conclusions or persuasive
messages with which they are confronted.
In part, this could be a function of expertise in a domain, so that experts may be less likely than nonexperts to
be persuaded by communications contrary to their own beliefs.
Too, in some situations individuals may be more persuadable than others.
Some personality traits may dispose individuals to be particularly affected by social influence.
Individuals might subsequently gravitate to views that are commonly shared within their social network.
Quest for Significance and Violent Extremism
Attackers who exhibited greater significance quest killed and wounded more people.
