Doctoral Dissertation Research: Reducing Religious Extremism Via Elite Persuasion

非技术性摘要这个项目解决了三个关于被边缘化的年轻成年男子的说服和宗教极端主义的问题。它试图确定有影响力的组织成员的努力是否能够有效地说服其他人减轻极端主义态度和行为。它在两个重要的社区中研究这一问题：在多数宗教团体的成员中，以及在认为自己是多数人的受害者的少数宗教团体中。其次，它询问强调非暴力神学规范的团体内宗教精英的说服努力是否比基于物质考虑的呼吁在减少极端主义方面更有效。第三，这项研究提出的问题是，即使面对阻碍和平的相反论点，说服努力是否也能成功。这项研究将在多个方面为政治学文献做出贡献。它讲述了与说服、种族冲突和激进化研究有关的问题。特别是，它明确地将工作与关于暴力极端主义的地址研究联系起来。同样，它直接测试了种族冲突文献中关于精英影响的关键假设，并对宗教规范在缓解极端主义方面的相对有效性提供了新的见解，而之前的研究往往侧重于物质方面的考虑。更广泛地说，该项目将为研究宗教极端主义的原因和潜在的补救措施提供重要的实践和理论见解。在这个项目中，该研究调查精英的有说服力的呼吁是否可以减少宗教极端主义。作者通过两个录音实验考察了两个具体的问题。第一个将评估精英呼吁与强调物质考虑的呼吁相比，强调阻止极端主义的宗教规范的有效性。特别是，这项工作调查了这种上诉在面对反驳时是否成立。第二个部分侧重于宗教规范诉求，特别是反极端主义精英的说服是否更有效取决于其来源：当它来自团体内神职人员、团体外神职人员，还是两者兼而有之。为了回答这些问题，作者将对年轻的成年男性逊尼派和什叶派进行两项实验，他们将被随机分配到收听暴力频发地区真正的当地精英录制的5或10分钟长的音频信息。极端主义行为是主要的结果，通过在暴露于试验性治疗五小时后收集的行为任务来衡量。为了进一步了解导致或防止极端主义的机制，将收集额外的治疗后调查项目，以评估影响是否由以下因素驱动：(1)了解到外派组织正在自我监督以减少极端主义；(2)增加对伊斯兰规范的学习；或(3)神职人员的具体制裁。

Nontechnical AbstractThis 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 AbstractIn 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.