Is There a Language of Terrorists? A Comparative Manifesto Analysis

Previous research has shown that identity fusion can motivate violent self-sacrifice when the group is threatened. In this study we conducted an ethnographic content analysis of fifteen manifestos – expressing varied levels extremism to examine whether and other relevant variables be reliably identified if predictions fusion-plus-threat model are supported. Our findings indicate linguistic proxies for combined with mediating moderating such as existential threat narratives, violence-condoning norms dehumanizing vocabulary, more prevalent in documents would-be terrorists. This method may contribute predicting likelihood individuals will engage acts extremism.