Neural and Behavioral Correlates of Sacred Values and Vulnerability to Violent Extremism.

ABSTRACT: Violent extremism is often explicitly motivated by commitment to abstract ideals such as the nation or divine law-so-called "sacred" values that are relatively insensitive to material incentives and define our primary reference groups. Moreover, extreme pro-group behavior seems to intensify after social exclusion. This fMRI study explores underlying neural and behavioral relationships between sacred values, violent extremism, and social exclusion. Ethnographic fieldwork and psychological surveys were carried out among 535 young men from a European Muslim community in neighborhoods in and around Barcelona, Spain. Candidates for an fMRI experiment were selected from those who expressed willingness to engage in or facilitate, violence associated with jihadist causes; 38 of whom agreed to be s

SUBMITTER: Pretus C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6309619 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature