Ruth Rebecca Tietjen

Radicalization – the process by which individuals come to adopt extreme political attitudes and behaviors – poses a serious challenge to contemporary democratic societies. Emotions and feelings play a central but underexplored role in this process. The misogynistic incel (involuntary celibates) movement transforms loneliness into hatred of women; radical-right parties channel social discontent into xenophobia; religious extremists turn moderate belief into fanatical devotion.

In this project, Ruth Rebecca Tietjen introduces the concept of “affective radicalization” to capture this emotional dimension, complementing existing research on cognitive and behavioral radicalization. Drawing on interdisciplinary work in psychology and philosophy, she employs conceptual analysis to develop the first systematic account of affective radicalization. By carefully examining the normative assumptions embedded in the concept, she lays the groundwork for a more reflective use of it as a tool of analysis and critique.