Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jun 3:11:1172.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01172. eCollection 2020.

Exploring the Pathways Between Transformative Group Experiences and Identity Fusion

Christopher M Kavanagh  1   2   3 , Rohan Kapitány  1 , Idhamsyah Eka Putra  4   5 , Harvey Whitehouse  1
Affiliations

Exploring the Pathways Between Transformative Group Experiences and Identity Fusion

Christopher M Kavanagh et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

A growing body of evidence suggests that two distinct forms of group alignment are possible: identification and fusion (the former asserts that group and personal identity are distinct, while the latter asserts group and personal identities are functionally equivalent and mutually reinforcing). Among highly fused individuals, group identity taps directly into personal agency and so any attack on the group is perceived as a personal attack and motivates a willingness to fight and possibly even die as a defensive response. As such, identity fusion is relevant in explaining violent extremism, including suicidal terrorist attacks. Identity fusion is theorized to arise as a result from experiences which are (1) perceived as shared and (2) transformative, however evidence for this relationship remains limited. Here, we present a pre-registered study in which we examine the role of transformativeness and perceived sharedness of group-defining events in generating identity fusion. We find that both of these factors are predictive of identity fusion but that the relationship with transformativeness was more consistent than perceived sharedness across analyses in a sample of Indonesian Muslims.

Keywords: Indonesia; Islam; extremism; fusion; identity fusion; social identity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Shared pathway model adapted from Whitehouse (2018, p. 2) with relevant variables highlighted.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Conceptual model of hypothesized relationships.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Theoretical model from Whitehouse and Kavanagh (in press).
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Correlation plot of study variables.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
(A,B) Scatterplot of relationship between transformativeness, perceived sharedness and Fusion with ‘All Muslims.’ Jitter added to aid visibility.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Barplot of relative contributions of variables to R2 predicting identification residual.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Barplot of relative contributions of variables to R2 predicting fusion residual.
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
Proposed mediation model.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Andersen S., Moskowitz D., Blair I. V., Nosek B. (2007). “Automatic thought,” in Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic Principals, eds Kruglanski A. W., Higgins E. T. (New York, NY: Guilford Publications; ), 133–172.
    1. Arifianto A. R. (2016). Islam Nusantara: NU’s Bid to Promote “Moderate Indonesian Islam” Commentary No. 114; RSIS Commentaries. Singapore: Nanyang Technological University, 1–3.
    1. Arifianto A. R. (2018). Islamic campus preaching organizations in Indonesia: promoters of moderation or radicalism? Asian Secur. 15 323–342. 10.1080/14799855.2018.1461086 - DOI
    1. Asal V., Rethemeyer R. K. (2008). The nature of the beast: organizational structures and the lethality of terrorist attacks. J. Polit. 70 437–449. 10.1017/s0022381608080419 - DOI
    1. Atran S., Sheikh H., Gómez A. (2014). Devoted actors sacrifice for close comrades and sacred cause. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 111 17702–17703. 10.1073/pnas.1420474111 - DOI - PMC - PubMed