Predicting Radicalism After Perceived Injustice: The Role of Separatist Identity, Sacred Values, and Police Violence

Pretus, C., Sheikh, H., Hamid, N., & Atran, S. (2023).

Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 

11(2), 730–746. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.11255

Abstract

Perceptions of injustice are central to fueling violent political action, though not everyone within a social movement will support violence in response to collective grievances. So who supports violence and who doesn't after perceived injustice? To address this question, we followed up on the same individuals (N = 805) before and after a court decision in Catalonia (Spain) sentencing nine separatist leaders to prison, an event that led to mass violent and nonviolent protests. We tested three hypotheses by combining classical theories of collective action and more recent extremism models and found support for all three hypotheses. Namely, individuals who exhibited steeper increases in radicalism (controlling for activism) after the court ruling were those who had previously experienced police violence (social dynamics hypothesis), those who identified as separatists (separatist identity hypothesis), and those who held Catalan 2 independence as a sacred value (sacred value hypothesis). Our findings offer a complex picture of real-world conflict settings, where the three evaluated factors seem to be intertwined. We discuss potential venues to restore inter-group relations after perceived injustice, with an assessment of how likely these strategies are to succeed based on the three adopted perspectives.

Here are some thoughts:

This study investigated what makes people who feel wronged turn to violence. Researchers studied people in Catalonia, Spain, following a court ruling that many Catalans felt was unfair. They found that people who felt more strongly about Catalan independence (separatist identity and sacred value) and had experienced police violence in the past were more likely to report increased support for violence after the court ruling.

The study suggests that these three factors may reinforce each other. For instance, experiencing police violence might strengthen someone's separatist identity and make them see independence as a more sacred value.

The researchers acknowledge limitations like not having a control group that wasn't exposed to the court ruling. They also note their findings may not apply to groups that see non-violence as a core value. Future studies could look at these factors across different cultures and social movements.

Overall, the study suggests that a sense of injustice, combined with a strong group identity and a feeling that the group's values are under attack, can make people more likely to support violence.

Spheres of immanent justice: Sacred violations evoke expectations of cosmic punishment, irrespective of societal punishment

Goyal, N., Savani, K., & Morris, M. W. (2023).

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 106, 104458.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2023.104458

Abstract

People like to believe that misdeeds do not escape punishment. However, do people expect that some kinds of sins are particularly punished by “the universe,” not just by society? Five experiments (N = 1184) found that people expected more cosmic punishment for transgressions of sacred rules than transgressions of secular rules or conventions (Studies 1–3) and that this “sacred effect” holds even after violations have been punished by society (Study 4a-4b). In Study 1, participants expected more cosmic punishment for a person who had sex with a cousin (sacred taboo) than sex with a subordinate (secular harm) or sex with a family associate (convention violation). In Study 2, people expected more cosmic punishment for eating a bald eagle (sacred violation) than eating an endangered puffin (secular violation) or a farm-raised emu (convention violation). In Study 3, Hindus expected more cosmic punishment for entering a temple wearing shoes (sacred violation) rather than entering a temple wearing revealing clothing (secular violation) or sunglasses (convention violation). In all three studies, this “sacred effect” was mediated by the perceived blasphemy rather than the perceived harm, immorality, or unusualness of the violations. Study 4a measured both expectations of societal and cosmic punishment, and Study 4b measured expectations of cosmic punishment after each violation had received societal punishment. Even after violations received societal punishment, people expected more cosmic punishment for sacred violations than secular or convention violations. Results are discussed in relation to models of immanent justice and just world beliefs.

A pdf is here.

This is an article about people’s expectations of punishment for violating different social norms. It discusses the concept of immanent justice, which is the belief that people get what they deserve. The authors propose that people expect harsher cosmic punishment for violations of sacred norms, compared to secular norms or social conventions. They conducted five studies to test this hypothesis. In the studies, participants read stories about people who violated different types of norms, and then rated how likely they were to experience various punishments. The results supported the authors’ hypothesis: people expected harsher cosmic punishment for sacred norm violations, even after the violations had been punished by society. This suggests that people believe in a kind of cosmic justice that goes beyond human punishment.