Identifying and Changing the Normative Beliefs About Aggression Which Lead Young Muslim Adults to Join Extremist Anti-Semitic Groups in Pakistan

aggression normative beliefs anti-Semitic inter-group extremist groups

There have been relatively few previous studies into the role of normative beliefs in aggression or aggressive intention toward specific groups, in contrast to the large literature on the role of normative beliefs in individual aggression. Of the few studies that have been conducted, the methodology has relied on the participants’ self-report of both aggressive attitudes and behaviors. For example, Shechtman and Basheer [2005] found that Arab children in Israel held normative beliefs that endorsed greater retaliation against a Jewish child than against an Arab child.