Language Predicts Identity Fusion Across Cultures and Reveals Divergent Pathways to Violence
This research addresses the problem of understanding and detecting extremism for psychologists and security analysts, offering a scalable tool that refines theories of identity fusion.
The study tackled the problem of predicting identity fusion, a psychological predictor of extremism, by developing the Cognitive Linguistic Identity Fusion Score, which outperformed existing methods in predicting validated fusion scores across datasets from the United Kingdom and Singapore. It revealed two distinct high-fusion pathways to violence in extremist manifestos: ideologues framing themselves in terms of group kinship and grievance-driven individuals framing the group in terms of personal identity.
In light of increasing polarization and political violence, understanding the psychological roots of extremism is increasingly important. Prior research shows that identity fusion predicts willingness to engage in extreme acts. We evaluate the Cognitive Linguistic Identity Fusion Score, a method that uses cognitive linguistic patterns, LLMs, and implicit metaphor to measure fusion from language. Across datasets from the United Kingdom and Singapore, this approach outperforms existing methods in predicting validated fusion scores. Applied to extremist manifestos, two distinct high-fusion pathways to violence emerge: ideologues tend to frame themselves in terms of group, forming kinship bonds; whereas grievance-driven individuals frame the group in terms of their personal identity. These results refine theories of identity fusion and provide a scalable tool aiding fusion research and extremism detection.