MONTREAL / LONDON (IT BOLTWISE) – A new study from McGill University shows that participation in extremist online forums may be motivated by the pursuit of basic psychological needs. The researchers found that users whose posts reflect a sense of autonomy and competence are more active and stay in these groups longer. These findings shed new light on the psychological drivers behind radicalization in the digital space.
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A recent study from McGill University suggests that participation in extremist online forums may be motivated by the pursuit of basic human psychological needs. The research, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Scienceshows that users whose posts reflect a sense of autonomy and competence are more active and stay longer in these groups. These findings suggest that extremist environments may serve as spaces in which individuals seek to fulfill fundamental desires for personal growth and social connection.
The researchers, including Jeremy JJ Rappel and his colleagues, examined whether established theories of human motivation could explain extremist behavior. They focused on the theory of basic psychological needs, which states that all people have three primary needs: autonomy, competence and belonging. Autonomy refers to the need to experience one’s own actions and thoughts as authentic and self-determined. Competence describes the desire to feel capable and effective in achieving goals. Belonging is the need for a sense of belonging and meaningful connections with other people.
To test these ideas, the research team analyzed a massive dataset of leaked conversations from the messaging service Discord. The data came from a public database of over 200 extremist chat rooms that included fascists, white supremacists and conspiracy theorists. The final sample was immense, consisting of approximately 20 million posts from more than 86,000 unique users. Using natural language processing, researchers were able to analyze the meaning of millions of posts without having to read each one manually.
The results showed a clear connection between psychological needs and behavior in these chat rooms. Users whose language reflected high levels of autonomy and competence tended to be much more engaged. Overall, they wrote more posts and stayed active in the chat rooms longer. Competence was the strongest predictor of how many posts a person made, suggesting that people who feel effective or capable in these spaces are more likely to contribute to the conversation. Autonomy also played a significant role, as users who felt a sense of ownership were more likely to remain active in the group long-term.
A different pattern was observed with the need for belonging. While there was some evidence that social connection was linked to activity, the results were less consistent than for autonomy and competence. In some models, affiliation was actually associated with fewer contributions, which was a surprising result. The researchers also found that users who expressed more autonomy and competence used fewer hate terms in their posts. This suggests that people who feel more personally confident and capable may have less need for aggressive language toward others.
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