Political and religious extremism: Measuring and explaining explicit and implicit attitudes

虽然已经有很多关于右翼民粹主义政党和民粹主义态度的研究，但令人惊讶的是，关于政治和宗教极端主义的研究很少，这些极端主义不仅像民粹主义者那样拒绝自由形式的民主，而且完全拒绝民主。这种极端主义态度既见于政治上的右翼和左翼，也见于声称宗教规则比本国宪法更重要的宗教团体。例如，在过去二十年中，许多欧洲国家的穆斯林人口有所增加，其中相当一部分也可被界定为宗教极端分子。此外，我们不知道极端主义的原因是否几乎相同，无论意识形态或宗教信仰如何，或者它们是否严重依赖于它们所依附的意识形态背景。最后，我们还看到整个欧洲主流和极端政党之间的政治分歧日益扩大。到目前为止，我们对这种政治分歧如何转变为社会现实以及个人如何对政治两极化作出反应知之甚少，本项目的第一个目标是首次开发一种基于调查的工具，使我们能够衡量各种形式的政治和宗教极端主义之间的相似性和差异。考虑到社会期望偏差在这一领域的问题，我们还建议第一次通过内隐联想测试来测量内隐的极端主义态度。因此，我们可以研究（1）如何概念化和衡量极端主义的态度，并评估潜在的左翼，右翼以及基督教和穆斯林的宗教极端主义在公众中。第二个目的是比较极端主义观点的解释因素，并分析不同形式的极端主义如何能够用相似或不同的因素来解释。因此，我们可以评估（2）这些极端主义的原因和后果如何相互关联。最后，第三个目标是研究这些极端主义团体之间以及极端主义者和非极端主义者之间的关系。这使我们能够调查（3）其他人如何看待极端分子，以及政党之间存在的紧张关系在多大程度上反映在个人层面，从而构成与日常生活相关的社会紧张关系。为了验证我们的论点，将在德国、荷兰和英国进行两项调查，分别有1 '500名当地人和500名穆斯林。

While there is already a lot of research on right-wing populist parties and populist attitudes, there is surprisingly little research on political and religious extremism that not only rejects the liberal forms of democracy as populists do, but democracy altogether. Such extremist attitudes can be found among the political right and left, but also religious groups who claim that religious rules are more relevant than the constitutions in their countries. For instance, over the last two decades many European countries have seen an increase of their Muslim population among which a considerable part can also be defined as religious extremists. Furthermore, we do not know whether causes for extremism are virtually the same, regardless of ideology or religious affiliation, or whether they are heavily dependent upon the ideological context they are attached to. And finally, we also witness a growing political divide between mainstream and extreme parties across Europe. Thus far, we know very little about how such political divides transcend into social realities and how individuals react to political polarization.The first aim of this project is to develop for the first time a survey-based instrument that allows us to measure the similarities and differences between the various forms of political and religious extremism. Given the problem of social desirability bias in this field we also propose for the first time to measure implicit extremist attitudes by means of an Implicit Association Test. Thus we can investigate (1) how to conceptualize and measure extremism attitudinally and assess the potential of left-wing, right-wing as well as Christian and Muslim religious extremism among the public. The second aim is to compare explanatory factors of extremist views and to analyze how different forms of extremism can be explained by similar or diverging factors. Therefore, we can assess (2) how causes and consequences of these extremisms relate to each other. Finally, the third aim is to study the relationship between these extremist groups as well as between extremists and non-extremists. This allows us to investigate (3) how extremists are perceived by others and to what extent the tensions that exist between political parties are reflected at the individual level and thus constitute social tensions that become relevant in daily life. To test our arguments two surveys will be conducted in Germany, the Netherlands and Great Britain with 1’500 natives and 500 Muslims.