Feddes, Mann, & Doosje (2015). Increasing self-esteem and empathy to prevent violent radicalization: a longitudinal quantitative evaluation of a resilience training focused on adolescents with a dual identity. - Article summary

An intervention aimed at empowering individuals in a combination with strengthening empathy is successful in countering violent radicalization. The social identity theory states that people derive part of their self-esteem from the social groups they belong to. People are inclined to perceive their group as better than others which results in positive emotions. However, when people experience relative deprivation, this might lead to negative emotions. This can lead people to distance themselves from society.

Low self-esteem is associated with aggression. Low self-esteem in adolescence predicts criminal behaviour in adulthood. It is also possible that a high self-esteem with threatened egotism is a strong predictor of violent behaviour. Narcissism might play an important role in mediating these relationships.

Empathy refers to the capacity to understand and respond to the unique affective experiences of another person. Perspective taking refers to the cognitive ability to anticipate the behaviour and reactions of other people. Perspective taking is related to less egocentric and more other oriented behaviour. Empathy and perspective taking are associated with less prejudice and stereotyping.

Empathy is negatively correlated with attitudes toward ideology-based violence. Narcissism positively predicts the attitude towards ideology-based violence.

Narcissism and empathy play an important role in regard to violent radicalization. Self-esteem and agency are not strongly associated with attitude towards ideology-based violence. Narcissism is strongly associated with attitude towards ideology-based violence.

A moderate level of self-esteem is associated with resilience to violent radicalizations while too high levels of self-esteem can make individuals more susceptible to radicalization. Relative deprivation is a distal factor influencing attitudes toward ideology-based violence.

Perspective taking is associated with more positive attitudes toward ideology-based violence. This may be due to the low-status group having more benefit from perspective giving whereas a high-status group might benefit more from perspective taking.