Psychological processes common to social conservatism and terrorism

There are areas of overlap between contemporary social conservatism and psychological aspects of terrorism. This paper summarizes empirical evidence from our large-scale cross-cultural surveys linking the two domains. Two component processes of both domains – Religiosity and Nastiness – are closely related. On their own, these processes are unlikely to lead to a significant increase in terrorist activity, even if the number of conservative-leaning members of the population were to increase. Our research, however, identified another component of the militant extremist mindset (MEM) – Grudge – that might precipitate a new wave of terrorism by groups linked to extreme conservative right-wing/populist political parties. •This is a summary of our studies of conservatism militant extremist mindset.•Nastiness and Religiosity are present in both domains.•Grudge is present in measures of extremist mindset, not conservatism.•To minimize the threat of terrorism the focus should be on reducing Grudge.