Deakin University
Browse

File(s) under permanent embargo

Death reminders increase agreement with extremist views but not violent extremist action in Indonesian Muslims

journal contribution
posted on 2016-07-01, 00:00 authored by M Iqbal, K S O Brien, A M Bliuc, Matteo VerganiMatteo Vergani
Using terror management theory, we examined whether mortality salience (MS; death-related cognitions) increased support for religious and political extremism and/or violent extremism in young Indonesian Muslims. Muslim and non-Muslim Indonesian students studying in Australia were randomized to an MS or control condition. Following completion of a distracter task, participants were asked to rate their agreement/disagreement with another Indonesian Muslim student’s (bogus) statements toward extremist views and violent extremist actions. After controlling for alienation, Muslim students in the MS condition reported significantly higher levels of support for extremist views than did non-Muslims. There was no significant effect of MS on violent extremist action in either Muslims or non-Muslims. The results suggest that reminders of death (MS) may lead young Muslims to be more supportive of politically and religiously extreme views, but not violent action. Our findings lend partial support to previous research in Iranian Muslim students; however, further research is needed to establish factors that can result in increased support for violent extremism.

History

Journal

Journal of cross-cultural psychology

Volume

47

Issue

6

Pagination

891 - 897

Publisher

Sage

Location

Thousand Oaks, Calif.

ISSN

0022-0221

eISSN

1552-5422

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2016, The Authors

Usage metrics

    Research Publications

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC