Psychology Hub

When Extreme Goes Mainstream: Extremism and Democratic Involution

Sophia Moskalenko, Arie Kruglanski — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Contemporary democracies are in a period of transition marked by polarization, erosion of shared norms, and the normalization of political extremism. This paper examines how extremism—traditionally understood as marginal, deviant, or pathological—comes to be mainstreamed within societies. Building on the tradition of the Roman School of Social Psychology founded by Eraldo De Grada, the paper integrates micro-level motivational dynamics with macro-level social and cultural processes. We first introduce the psychology of extremism at the individual level, emphasizing the need for significance, identity fusion, and self-sacrifice. We then extend this framework to the societal level, examining how institutions, media environments, and cultural narratives reward extremity while penalizing moderation. Finally, we analyze how these processes enable the transition from fringe extremism to its normalization in mainstream political culture and everyday life.

Ideological Motivations Under Threat: How Beliefs in a Just World, Social Dominance Orientation, and Employment Uncertainty Frame Essentialism and Diversity Attitudes

Antonio Aiello, Alessio Tesi, Daniela Di Santo — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We investigated how individuals with high beliefs in a just world (BJW, the conviction that the world is fair and just) and social dominance orientation (SDO, individual preference for maintaining group-based hierarchies) rely on essentialist explanations as a way to cope with employment uncertainty. In turn, we expected that essentialism would diminish the support for workplace diversity, an important psychological foundation of organizational inclusion. We recruited 314 employees belonging to different organizational contexts and tested our hypothesis using a three-way moderated mediation model. All study variables were assessed through an anonymous self-report questionnaire. Results supported our hypothesis. The positive relationship between employees’ BJW and essentialism was strongest when individuals high in SDO endorsed hierarchy-legitimizing ideologies and experienced high levels of perceived employment uncertainty. This finding suggests that essentialist narratives are used to manage employment-related uncertainty when employees are motivated to perceive the world as fair and to support a stable social system. In turn, essentialism was associated with lower support for workplace diversity within the organization. In line with our moderated mediation hypothesis, the whole model suggested a negative indirect association between BJW and support for diversity, mediated by essentialism only when both BJW and SDO were high and employment uncertainty was elevated. These findings underscore important implications for fostering employees’ appreciation of diversity and strengthening social inclusion in the workplace.

Normative Differentiation and Organizational Prototypicality in Discursive Coalitions: A Hyperlink Network Analysis of the European Bioplastics Field

Nuccio Ludovico, Alessandro Milani, Marino Bonaiuto — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Bioplastics are recognized as a key component of Europe’s sustainability transition, yet the field is characterized by uncertainty and competing interpretations of what constitutes responsible and effective solutions. Organizational actors emphasize different sustainability priorities, producing a landscape of divergent values and normative orientations. In such contested fields, organizations may converge into discursive coalitions when they articulate compatible normative storylines and establish publicly visible relations with one another. Drawing jointly on research on discursive coalitions and on Self-Categorization Theory, this study examines whether digitally mediated organizational coalitions in the European bioplastics field are normatively differentiated, and whether actors who more closely embody their coalition's normative profile occupy more prominent positions within it. Using hyperlink data among organizational websites, we reconstruct a network of publicly visible interorganizational relations and identify emergent digital communities. Organizations' normative profiles are modeled from publicly articulated sustainability commitments associated with the SDGs. Results show that communities exhibit normative meta-contrast, with organizations more similar to their own community's normative profile than to that of other communities. Prototypicality, defined as the extent to which an organization's profile aligns with its community's profile, is positively associated with network centrality, and this association strengthens among the most central organizations. The findings indicate that the formation and internal stratification of discursive coalitions in digitally mediated sustainability fields can be approximated through publicly observable communication and relational linkage, integrating discursive and social-categorization accounts of organizational positioning.

Psychometric Characteristics of the Anti-Neoliberal Attitudes Scale in the Italian Context: Preliminary Findings on Factor Structure and its Relationship with Right-Wing Authoritarianism, Social Dominance and Political Orientation

Antonio Chirumbolo — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Neoliberalism has increasingly been recognized as a relevant ideological framework for understanding contemporary forms of inequality, yet psychometric tools for assessing anti-neoliberal attitudes remain scarce, particularly outside the context in which such measures were originally developed. The present study examined the Italian adaptation of the Anti-Neoliberal Attitudes Scale (ANAS) and provided preliminary evidence of its psychometric properties. Participants were 330 Italian respondents who completed the ANAS, a measure of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), a measure of social dominance orientation (SDO), and a single-item indicator of political orientation. Exploratory factor analysis supported a four-factor solution broadly consistent with the original conceptualization, identifying the dimensions of Multicultural Ideology, Racism and Sexism Awareness, Inequality Consciousness, and Communitarian Values. The final factor solution accounted for 47.69% of the total variance. The factor model showed excellent fit to the data, TLI = .95, RMSEA = .045, 90% CI [.033, .055]. Internal consistency was overall satisfactory, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from .69 to .83. Concurrent validity was supported by the expected pattern of correlations. All ANAS dimensions were negatively associated with RWA, SDO, and right-wing political orientation. Taken together, these findings provide encouraging preliminary support for the Italian ANAS as a multidimensional measure of anti-neoliberal attitudes. Future research should further examine its factorial validity through confirmatory factor analysis and test its generalizability in more diverse samples.

In Defense of Left/Right Ideology

Gianvittorio Caprara — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Contemporary symptoms of political malaise—such as the decline of political parties, the obsolescence of established leadership, and rising voter abstention—raise profound concerns regarding the state and future of liberal democracy. It is likely that the ideals of democracy cannot be realized unless citizens genuinely appropriate its values and actively contribute to its functioning. This necessitates a more thorough understanding of the personal determinants of political preferences and participation, as well as a careful assessment of the value of ideological frameworks in bridging citizens' needs and aspirations with political offerings and public policies. To this end, the left/right dichotomy has served as ideological cleavage for organizing and channeling citizen consensus and politicians' commitment to the realization of democratic values. Although this has occurred only in part and predominantly within the domain of Western democracies, mounting criticism of its limitations should not lead one to lose sight of its distinctive features and functions in intercepting and articulating citizens' political aspirations. Ultimately, one should take care not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Freedom or constraint? The precarity of freedom and why and when liberals embrace the tendency to devise and abide by constraining social rules

Antonio Pierro, Valentina Rizzoli, Flavia Albarello, Arie W. Kruglanski — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Across three studies (total N = 568), this research examined whether politically left-wing individuals with a need for cognitive closure (NCC, i.e., the desire for stable and certain knowledge) or under conditions of threat-related uncertainty can resemble right-wing individuals in their support for the strength of social norms and sanctioning for deviance from norms within societies (i.e., the desire for cultural tightness). In the first two studies, in which the NCC was either measured (Study 1) or experimentally induced (Study 2), we found that left-wing participants with high chronic or acute NCC supported strict social norms pertaining to the maintenance of groups. In the third study, in which threat-related uncertainty was measured via the perceived socio-ecological threats, we found that left-wing participants under conditions of high (vs. low) threat-related uncertainty supported higher levels of cultural tightness. Across the three studies no difference was found for right-wing participants between high or low NCC or between high or low threat-related uncertainty conditions. This is consistent with the conservative shift hypothesis that argues that left-wing individuals can shift toward more conservative positions under conditions of high need for closure or when they perceive uncertainty in their social environments.

Giorgia Meloni intersecting [im]migration, gender issues, and right-wing populism. A case study of the language in social representations acted by her and by the media—a narrative review of psychosocial literature

Gilda Sensales, Gabriele Di Cicco, Laura Prislei, Sofia Sorvillo — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The article presents a literature review of the case of Giorgia Meloni, the first woman Prime Minister of a government that, for the first time, saw all right-wing parties, including radicals, at the helm of Italy. The preferred theoretical perspective for selecting studies is social representations (SR), particularly attentive to the analysis of language, which is considered a non-neutral tool embedded in specific ideological and cultural choices that lead to the selection of linguistic markers capable of conveying those choices. The review highlights Meloni’s relationship with populism and fascism, both in terms of style — agentic, top-down, but also emotional — and content, which is migrant-centric. The studies presented are also analyzed with respect to the salience of gender identity, as analyzed in Meloni’s direct language use in her parliamentary speeches, her social media communications, her statements regarding the Fanpage scandal, and her followers’ responses to her Facebook posts. Attention is also drawn to the SR of Meloni constructed by the Italian daily press of varying ideological and cultural orientations. The article concludes by outlining the characteristics of the leadership model that emerged.

Restorative and Punitive Attitudes: A Qualitative Study Toward a Preliminary Conceptual Model

Lucrezia Perrella, Rita Zarbo, Ernesto Lodi, Paola Magnano, Patrizia Patrizi — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Over the past two decades, research on punitive attitudes has grown, yet a precise definition of the construct remains elusive. Similarly, the concept of restorative attitude, introduced by Zehr in 2002, has received limited empirical attention. Existing studies have also rarely explored the potential relationship between restorative and punitive attitudes. To address this gap, this study aims to provide preliminary qualitative evidence to support the plausibility of a restorative-punitive framework and to explore its potential dimensions, to be tested in future quantitative studies.
A qualitative study design was employed, involving 81 participants: 26 experts in restorative justice (Italian and European) who took part in structured interviews, and 55 university students who completed an open-ended questionnaire.
The results revealed a polarisation in representations of the meaning of justice, highlighting, on the one hand, themes related to control and punishment and, on the other, themes related to support, rehabilitation, equity, and relationships. Expert interviews identified empathy, responsibility, respect and sense of justice as dimensions frequently associated with restorative attitude.
Overall, the convergence of theoretical contributions and the data from questionnaires and interviews provided preliminary support for the plausibility of a restorative-punitive framework. Because the study was exploratory and qualitative, the proposed continuum should be interpreted as a theoretical hypothesis requiring further empirical testing. The findings suggest that restorative and punitive attitudes may represent contrasting orientations for interpreting and responding to harm, while also highlighting the need for further research to examine their structure, dimensionality and measurement.

“Dialogues on democracy in transition: Social-psychological perspectives”. Special issue celebrating the centenary of Eraldo De Grada’s birth

Gilda Sensales, Antonio Pierro, Marino Bonaiuto — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This special issue celebrates the centenary of Eraldo De Grada’ birth, founder of the Roman School of Social Psychology. De Grada's scholarly legacy is defined by his commitment to methodological rigor and a profound awareness of the interdependence between psychological, social, and cultural factors. His approach, which rejected reductionist perspectives, remains essential for analyzing contemporary society.
As modern representative democracies face unprecedented challenges—characterized by the rise of populism, deepening social inequalities, and the fragility of political institutions—this collection invokes De Grada's vision to address these transitions. The issue features eight contributions that explore the intersection of micro-level ideological and motivational dynamics and macro-level social and cultural processes that underlie the “democracy’s precarious state of health”. Topics range from the normalization of political extremism and right-wing populism to anti-neoliberal attitudes, polarization and/or conservative shift, and the restorative-punitive dynamics of justice. By integrating theoretical analysis with practical applications, these articles demonstrate the enduring heuristic validity of De Grada's work. Collectively, they reaffirm the role of social psychology in understanding and countering current involutional processes to support a more equal and free society.