Developing an Extremist Construct Schema and Measuring Ideological Engagement

The study of online communication in extremist communities can benefit from novel methods to cast new empirical light on how individuals engage with the content of these phenomena. This work categorized such content through the systematic extraction of constructs used by members of Islamic-based extremist forums. To identify constructs that could attract engagement from extremists over time, a schema was developed from four proposed dimensions of extremism: conflict, emotion, religion, and role. Analysis of engagement relied on a mixed methods approach applied to numerous discussions on 11 independent forums, where constructs were coded according to schema dimensions. A novel change point detection methodology was used to examine the lifespan of constructs and empirically measure engagement, which was estimated across forums through meta-analyses. A small proportion of constructs experienced significant engagement over time, primarily concentrated in the religion and role dimensions. Both dimensions attracted high engagement in all the forums analyzed, where role had smaller effects than religion across forums. The forum context and extremist discourse make high engagement with religion an expected outcome, but similar results produced by the role dimension were surprising and should recalibrate thinking when compared to the traditionally studied emotion and conflict dimensions in online radicalization.