Doctoral Dissertation Research: Reducing Religious Extremism Via Elite Persuasion

Columbia University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Nontechnical Abstract This project addresses three questions regarding persuasion and religious extremism among marginalized young adult men. It seeks to determine whether efforts on the part of influential group members can effectively persuade others to mitigate extremist attitudes and behavior. It studies this question in two important communities: among members of a majority religious group, as well among a minority religious group that perceives itself as victimized by the majority. Second, it asks whether persuasion efforts by in-group religious elites that emphasize theological norms for non-violence are more effective in reducing extremism than appeals based on material considerations. Third, the research asks whether persuasion efforts can succeed even in the face of counter arguments that discourage peace. This research will contribute to political science literature on a number of fronts. It speaks to issues related to persuasion, ethnic conflict, and radicalization studies. In particular, it explicitly links work on to the address research on violent extremism. Likewise, it directly tests crucial assumptions from the ethnic conflict literature about elite influence, and offers new insights on the relative effectiveness of religious norms in mitigating extremism, whereas previous studies tended to focus on material considerations. More broadly, the project will provide important insights into have important practical and theoretical insights into the causes of, and potential remedies for religious extremism. Technical Abstract In this project, the research investigates whether persuasive appeals by elites can reduce religious extremism. The author conducts two audio recording experiments to examine two specific questions. The first will assess the effectiveness of elite appeals emphasizing religious norms that discourage extremism as compared to appeals that emphasize material considerations. In particular, the work investigates whether such appeals sustain in the face of counterarguments. The second component focuses on religious normative appeals, notably whether counter-extremist elite persuasion is more effective depending on its source: when it comes from an in-group cleric, out-group cleric, or both clerics. To answer the questions the author will administer two experiments to young adult male Sunni and Shia will be randomly assigned to listen to 5 or 10 minute-long audio messages recorded by real, local elites in in violence-prone areas. Extremist behavior, the primary outcome, is measured using behavioral tasks collected five hours after exposure to the experimental treatment. To gain further insight into the mechanisms that cause or prevent extremism, additional post-treatment survey items will be collected to assess whether effects are driven by: (1) learning that the outgroup is policing itself to reduce extremism; (2) increased learning of Islamic norms; or (3) specific sanctioning by clerics.