Radicalisation - how minds go to extremes, and how to turn them back

Politics on the Couch

Rafael Behr talks to Cognitive Scientist of Political Violence, Nafees Hamid, about what makes extremists tick and how to change their minds.

Nafees discusses the conditions that push people towards extremist ideologies and whether a martyr's mind is wired differently to the rest of us.

Along the way, Rafael and Nafees explore identity, sacred values, devoted actors, and how extremists can be walked back from acts of violence.

Nafees Hamid is a Fellow at ARTIS International (https://artisinternational.org) and an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (https://icct.nl) in The Hague.

His research focuses on the psychology of radicalisation and social fragmentation in Western countries.

His methods include ethnographic interviews, survey studies, social network analysis, and psychology and neuroscience experiments with mostly Western members of extremist organisations, their friends and family, supporters of such networks, and the general communities from where they originate.

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

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