Cioffi-Revilla, ClaudioAlizadeh, Meysam2017-01-292017-01-292016https://hdl.handle.net/1920/10580The problem of interest in this dissertation is the phenomenon of drifting toward opinion extremes. The process is called Radicalization and has received a great deal of attention in social psychology and sociology from its inception. Although it is extremism of behavior that is of greatest interest, it is important to study opinion extremism since it has been shown to be a plausible preceding step of violent extremism. One of the longstanding quests in counter-radicalization studies is to know what drives extremists to adopt extreme ideologies. However, it is unlikely that extremists will volunteer for experimental studies.215 pagesenCopyright 2016 Meysam AlizadehPolitical scienceSocial psychologySociologyExtremismIngroup FavoritismIntergroup ConflictOpinion DynamicsPolarizationDissertation