In this paper we discuss the implementation and simulation of an agent-based model on identity fusion (IF), which is considered as a state in which agents have a single social identity from which they can satisfy their social needs. IF is the result of a dynamic step-by-step process with interaction between individual social needs and group characteristics. Consequently, fused agents have no alternative groups and can only satisfy their social needs by adapting to the behaviour of one single group. The simulation shows that long term fusion happens in groups requiring actions with high intensity, driven by agents with a high need for significance and belonging. Agents with different need urgency become locked-in in those groups and thus fused, without alternatives for need satisfaction.

Most terrorist groups are active close to their native area of operation. Why then do some terrorist groups expand to foreign territories? In an exploratory attempt, this article draws parallels between organised crime group transplantation frameworks and the transnational activities of terrorist groups. Utilising transplantation studies, we introduce a conceptual criminological framework that integrates both push and pull factors influencing the transnational movement of terrorist groups. To validate this framework as a pilot test, we apply it to al-Qaeda's operations in the Sahara-Sahel region, relying on open-source data. Our findings, while preliminary, indicate the potential of this unified transplantation approach in offering deeper insights into the transnational behaviours of terrorist groups.

We want to understand in which circumstances identity fusion occurs. We propose a model in which individual needs and interactions between agents and their social environment come together. We argue the personal identity of an agent will fuse with a group when it has a high need for significance and he is member of a group providing a means to gain significance. Agents cannot join all groups to meet their needs, as agents need to have a social connection with the group and need to be accepted within the group. The model allows for multiple scenarios to occur. Agents with a need for significance not necessarily become fused and will find alternative ways to satisfy their need.

The electoral success of nativist parties in several Western democracies in the last decade surprised many political operators and academics alike, in part due to an insufficient understanding of the confluence of triggers of anti-immigrant sentiments. The extent of knowledge has since improved with notable strides made at the intersection of multiple sources of intolerant attitudes, such as between realistic and symbolic threat, threat perception and belief systems, individual-level and group-level characteristics, and biological and cultural determinants. By contextualizing the literature in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia, we highlight region specificity as another consideration for future research. An appreciation for the complex sources of anti-immigrant sentiments should bring a new level of sophistication to diversity management strategies.

This article explores the results of a study on media participation on Twitter in 2018/2019 perceived as contributing to far right and Islamist radical ideologies, in 7 European countries. By combining online ethnography and big data approaches, we see that online far right extremism in Europe is active and ranks are growing, while Islamist extremism has been incapacitated in sharing controversial forms of expression. We describe how the far right uses Twitter as a means for political activism, while Islamist extremists offer lifestyle information, related to local branches of faith, using Twitter as a storefront that re-routes users to other platforms. We consider resources for action, notably on the far right. World leaders influence followers online and support a global conversation between users that paves the way to a far right European milieu thriving on Twitter. To conclude, we delve into the notions of radicalisation and political participation to emphasise the asymmetry between the two forms of media participation in respect to academic discourses and big tech and States’ practises.

Despite the growing interest in the phenomenon of engagement without recognition within de facto state literature, the concept remains under-analysed. Through an analysis of Kurdistan's engagement with the Iraqi government, this article aims to answer the following questions: What are the de facto state's authorities' policies of engagement with parent states? And how does internal political rivalry affect the policies of engagement with parent state? The study highlights the importance of a de facto state's internal political rivalry in the question of engagement with a parent state, a point on which the literature has not paid enough attention. The portrayal of Baghdad among the Kurds, which is instrumental in the relationship between Kurdistan and the Iraqi government, is heavily partisan. As the dynamics of the political rivalry between Kurdistan's two main centres of power change, the image of Baghdad among the Kurds as a source of threat or opportunity is also altered.

The article reports initial attempts to evaluate a new positive psychological approach to bolster resilience among Muslims in the Netherlands. The approach uses Quranic texts and principles from mental contrasting and implementation intentions (MCII) to encourage Muslims in the Netherlands to reflect in groups on appropriate responses to challenges they are facing. The participants are inspired by Quranic texts and encouraged to write responses to specific challenges in the form of IF-THEN rules and to practice these IF-THEN rules for several weeks. Two studies indicate that this approach increases personal growth initiative. The implications of these findings for the MCII literature and prevention/countering violent extremism are discussed.

Online businesses collect a wealth of data on customers, often without properly informing them. Increasingly, these data can be used for behavioral price discrimination. In this two-study article, we explore how consumers would respond if businesses were compelled to disclose their use of discriminatory behavioral pricing techniques. Using different disclosure frames, we examine the effects of disclosure on purchase intention and purchase probability. The findings indicate that specific disclosure frames affect purchase intentions. Furthermore, we find that a disclosure frame that is more in line with a consumer’s self-interest increases purchase intention. Specifically, the frame indirectly influences intention to purchase through its effect on the perception that the use of behavioral pricing information serves self-interest. In this way, our study draws attention to a potentially unanticipated effect of regulatory intervention. Implications for future research and legal policy are discussed, focused on the need to design and empirically test the effectiveness of disclosures online.

This research aims to analyse the drivers which informed the decision and timing of Kurdistan's independence referendum on 25 September 2017. Here we argue that any proper examination of these drivers must begin by investigating the relationship between the fight to counter the Islamic State begun in 2014, the disputes arising as a result of Kurdistan's presidential election issue in 2015 and the internal political rivalry exacerbated by the question of whether to hold a referendum. The findings of this article highlight the centrality of de facto entities' internal governance in their struggle towards statehood. The fight against IS served as a primary driver in influencing the timing and the approach of the September 2017 referendum. While the 2015 political deadlock resulting in the illegal extension of Barzani's presidency was not a determining factor leading to the referendum, nonetheless it quickened the process and influenced the timing.

Despite the growing interest in the study of de facto states, our understanding of the conditions under which these entities construct and change strategies to gain international recognition remains partial. The aim of this article is to answer the following questions: firstly, what strategies did the Kurdistan Region of Iraq adopt in its pursuit of international recognition? And secondly, what internal and external dynamics are responsible for changing these recognition strategies? To do so, we analyse 68 speeches, interviews and statements from former KRI President Masoud Barzani, from the public announcement of an independence referendum on 7 June 2017 to the holding of the referendum on 25 September 2017, looking into his arguments for independence and how internal and external dynamics have shaped the KRI's recognition strategies. Drawing on the case of the KRI, the article tries to provide insights into how de facto states construct their arguments for statehood.

Research in the lay epistemic framework has taken place within three separate paradigms, centered respectively on the need for cognitive closure, the unimodel of social judgment, and the concept of epistemic authority. This chapter offers an integrative, up-to-date synopsis of this work, affording a bird's eye perspective on knowledge formation processes and their ramifications for a broad variety of social psychological phenomena. The theory of lay epistemics concerns the process of knowledge formation. It is generally agreed among philosophers of knowledge that the sequence of hypothesis generation and testing has no unique or objective point of termination. A major assumption of the lay epistemic theory is that knowledge is derived from evidence. At the interpersonal level they enter into communication and persuasion, empathy, and negotiation behavior, and at the group level into the formation of consensus and the forging of stable social realities for the members.

Building on Google's efforts to scan millions of books, this article introduces methodology using a database of annual word frequencies of the 40,000 most frequently occurring words in the American literature between 1800 and 2009. The current paper uses this methodology to replicate and identify terror management processes in historical context. Variation in frequencies of word usage of constructs relevant to terror management theory (e.g. death, worldview, self-esteem, relationships) are investigated over a time period of 209 years. Study 1 corroborated previous TMT findings and demonstrated that word use of constructs related to death and of constructs related to patriotism and romantic relationships significantly co-vary over time. Study 2 showed that the use of the word "death" most strongly co-varies over time with the use of medical constructs, but also co-varies with the use of constructs related to violence, relationships, religion, positive sentiment, and negative sentiment. Study 3 found that a change in the use of death related words is associated with an increase in the use of fear related words, but not in anxiety related words. Results indicate that the described methodology generates valuable insights regarding terror management theory and provide new perspectives for theoretical advances.

This paper considers the conceptual and empirical merits of Ernest Becker’s analysis of radicalization and mass violence. Starting with several cases showing a clear link between exposure to traumatic events and violence, Ernest Becker’s idea that mass violence should be understood as an attempt to overcome the fear of death is examined in the light of recent experimental social psychological research, field research on the attitudinal effects of threatening situations, clinical modeling of the relation between fear and anger, and insights from neuroscience. Becker’s ideas, in conjunction with empirical research, may contribute to an understanding of how humans can behave under extreme circumstances.

The Lancet Series on violence against women and girls, while providing a global perspective on the subject and exploring possible preventive measures, fails to place enough emphasis on the extent to which violence affects the children of these women.1García-Moreno C Hegarty K Lucas d'Oliveira AF Koziol-MacLain J Colombini M Feder G The health-systems response to violence against women.Lancet. 2015; 385: 1567-1579Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (325) Google Scholar According to our experience, many women admit that they have been victims of intimate partner violence only when it has been established that their children have been abused. When a mother is a victim of intimate partner violence her children are at a great risk of both physical and psychological abuse. In the Netherlands being a witness of intimate violence has recently been classified as a form of child abuse. Women who are victims of intimate partner violence regularly attend hospital Emergency Departments but often do not reveal the cause of their injuries. However, experienced staff should be able to explore this issue in a sensitive, safe manner. In 2008, we introduced a programme (Hague Protocol) aimed at patients attending the Emergency Departments for injuries suspected to result from intimate partner violence.2Diderich HM Fekkes M Verkerk PH et al.A new protocol for screening adults presenting with their own medical problems at the Emergency Department to identify children at high risk for maltreatment.Child Abuse Negl. 2013; 37: 1122-1131Crossref PubMed Scopus (30) Google Scholar They are asked whether they are responsible for the care of children. If this is the case, a voluntary community child welfare agency subsequently contacts the family within 2 weeks to discuss the problem and organise the necessary support. This programme has been rolled out over the whole of the Netherlands. Worries that this might lead to avoidance of the Emergency Departments were proved to be unfounded.3Diderich HM Fekkes M Dechesne M Buitendijk SE Oudesluys-Murphy AM Detecting child abuse based on parental characteristics: Does The Hague Protocol cause parents to avoid the Emergency Department?.Int Emerg Nurs. 2014; (published online Sept 19.)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ienj.2014.09.004Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (6) Google Scholar Health systems can help women and children who are victims of violence. We declare no competing interests. Prevention of violence against women and girls: what does the evidence say?In this Series paper, we review evidence for interventions to reduce the prevalence and incidence of violence against women and girls. Our reviewed studies cover a broad range of intervention models, and many forms of violence—ie, intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual assault, female genital mutilation, and child marriage. Evidence is highly skewed towards that from studies from high-income countries, with these evaluations mainly focusing on responses to violence. This evidence suggests that women-centred, advocacy, and home-visitation programmes can reduce a woman's risk of further victimisation, with less conclusive evidence for the preventive effect of programmes for perpetrators. Full-Text PDF The health-systems response to violence against womenHealth systems have a crucial role in a multisector response to violence against women. Some countries have guidelines or protocols articulating this role and health-care workers are trained in some settings, but generally system development and implementation have been slow to progress. Substantial system and behavioural barriers exist, especially in low-income and middle-income countries. Violence against women was identified as a health priority in 2013 guidelines published by WHO and the 67th World Health Assembly resolution on strengthening the role of the health system in addressing violence, particularly against women and girls. Full-Text PDF From work with men and boys to changes of social norms and reduction of inequities in gender relations: a conceptual shift in prevention of violence against women and girlsViolence perpetrated by and against men and boys is a major public health problem. Although individual men's use of violence differs, engagement of all men and boys in action to prevent violence against women and girls is essential. We discuss why this engagement approach is theoretically important and how prevention interventions have developed from treating men simply as perpetrators of violence against women and girls or as allies of women in its prevention, to approaches that seek to transform the relations, social norms, and systems that sustain gender inequality and violence. Full-Text PDF

Humans are motivated by a quest for significance that is threatened by the inevitability of death. However, individuals with interdependent self-construals, self-representations that reflect embeddedness with and connection to others, are able to extend themselves through time and space through their linkage to a larger social group. The present set of 5 experiments tested the hypotheses that individuals primed with an interdependent self-construal would fear death less and would be more willing to face harm for the sake of the group than individuals with an independent self-construal, that is, self-representations that reflect autonomy and independence from others ("I have self-control"). The results show that interdependent self-construals, compared to independent self-construals, attenuate death anxiety, reduce the avoidance of death, increase the approach to death-related stimuli, induce a greater willingness to become a martyr, and induce a greater willingness to sacrifice the self for other members of important groups.

Introduction: We aimed to assess the number of "missed cases" in the detection of child abuse based on the Hague Protocol. This protocol considers 3 parental characteristics of ED adult patients to identify child abuse: (1) domestic violence, (2) intoxication, and (3) suicide attempt or auto-mutilation.Methods: This study focuses on parents whose children should have been referred to the Reporting Centre for Child Abuse and Neglect (RCCAN) in the Hague, the Netherlands, according to the guidelines of the Hague Protocol. Data were collected from all referrals by the Medical Centre Haaglanden (Medisch Centrum Haaglanden) to the RCCAN in the Hague between July 1 and December 31, 2011. The hospital's database was searched to determine whether the parents had visited the emergency department in the 12 months before their child's referral to the RCCAN.Results: Eight missed cases out of 120 cases were found. The reasons for not referring were as follows: forgetting to ask about children and assuming that it was not necessary to refer children if parents indicated that they were already receiving some form of family support.Discussion: Barriers to identifying missing cases could be relatively easy to overcome. Regular training of emergency nurses and an automated alert in the electronic health record to prompt clinicians and emergency nurses may help prevent cases being missed in the future.

To determine the critical facilitating and impeding factors underlying successful implementation of a method to detect child abuse based on parental rather than child characteristics known as the Hague Protocol. The original implementation region of the protocol (The Hague) was compared to a new implementation region (Friesland), using analysis of referrals, focus group interviews (n=6) at the Emergency departments (ED) and at the Reporting Centers for Child abuse and Neglect (RCCAN) as well as questionnaires (n=76) at the EDs. Implementation of the Hague Protocol substantially increased the number of referrals to the RCCAN in both regions. In Friesland, the new implementation region, the number of referrals increased from 2 out of 92,464 patients (three per 100,000) to 108 out of 167,037 patients (62 per 100,000). However in Friesland, child abuse was confirmed in a substantially lower percentage of cases relative to the initial implementation region (62% vs. 91%, respectively). Follow-up analyses suggest that this lower positive predictive value may be due to the lack of training for RCCAN professionals concerning the Hague Protocol. The focus group interviews and questionnaires point to time limitations as the main impediment for implementation, whereas an implementation coach has been mentioned as the most important facilitating factor for success. The Hague Protocol can be used to detect child abuse beyond the initial implementation region. However, training is essential in order to assure a consistent evaluation by the RCCAN.

The Hague Protocol considers three parental characteristics of Emergency Department adult patients to identify child abuse: (a) domestic violence, (b) intoxication, and (c) suicide attempt or auto mutilation. This study investigated whether additional parental characteristics could be included to improve the chance of detection. Using a nested case-control design, we compared parents identified as child abusers who were missed by the Protocol with a matched group of nonabusing parents. The parental characteristics used were, among others, all physical injuries possibly resulting from domestic violence, psychological, or mental complaints that might indicate elevated domestic stress levels and the number of Emergency Department visits during the previous year. None of the characteristics were statistically significantly associated with child abuse. The Hague Protocol will not be improved by adding one or more of the characteristics that were investigated.