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Studying Ideological Groups Online: Identification and Assessment of Risk Factors for Violence
Author(s) -
Angie Amanda D.,
Davis Josh L.,
Allen Matthew T.,
Byrne Cristina L.,
Ruark Gregory A.,
Cunningham Cory B.,
Hoang Toni S.,
Bernard Daniel R.,
Hughes Michael G.,
Connelly Shane,
O'Hair H. Dan,
Mumford Michael D.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00730.x
Subject(s) - ideology , pairwise comparison , social psychology , psychology , identification (biology) , political science , developmental psychology , law , botany , politics , biology
Recent acts of violence have demonstrated the impact of violent ideological groups worldwide. However, the systematic study of these groups is somewhat limited. The Internet is a valuable tool for investigating ideological group behavior because it is easily accessible and commonly used by these groups. This study attempted to extend previous research by examining online message boards to assess processes particular to ideological group membership. A content analysis was conducted on several group process variables using 29 groups with message boards. A Kruskal‐Wallis test with follow‐up pairwise comparisons was used to find that violent ideological groups differed from nonviolent ideological and nonviolent nonideological groups on 7 group process variables and 3 content variables. Implications are discussed.