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People with extremist attitudes can be identified on the basis of cognitive characteristics - at least that's what scientists at Cambridge and Stanford Universities want to have found out.

In a new study, they explain that people who are prone to extremism of various forms perform worse on certain tasks in psychological tests than people without extreme ideas.

In their study, the scientists in the United States involved more than 330 people between the ages of 22 and 63 years.

The first selection began in 2016 as part of other studies on which the current evaluation is based. In addition to age, the researchers also asked the test subjects for other information that could influence the study results - including ethnicity, highest educational level and gender .

During the course of the study, participants were asked to complete a series of tests over a two-week period.

This included 37 neuropsychological tasks and 22 personality surveys.

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In the surveys, the participants should express their level of agreement or disagreement with certain questions aimed at assessing religiosity (how often do you pray or how often do you go to church - excluding weddings and other celebrations?) Or political extremism or Identify patriotism ("I would attack someone who insults or makes fun of America as a whole" or, "We should do whatever is necessary to increase the power of our country - even if it means war").

The cognitive tasks, however, were designed neutrally according to the study.

That is, they did not contain any emotional or political influences.

For example, participants were asked to memorize visual shapes or identify shapes of objects.

According to the study, the participants who had expressed extreme ideas on the psychological questions did noticeably poorly in these tests.

For the researchers, this means that extremist attitudes influence the ability to engage with complex and strategic mental processes.

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The study also showed the behavioral characteristics of people with tendencies towards extremism.

They find it difficult to regulate their emotions and tend to make impulsive decisions.

These findings "could help to understand what kind of person could be willing to use violence against innocent others," Leor Zmigrod, lead author of the study, told the English newspaper "The Guardian".

Conversely, the study also provides an explanation for why certain people are more prone to conspiracy theories and other forms of extremism.

Affected people apparently tend to think in black and white.

In other words: "If you have difficulties processing complex content, you look for ideologies that offer clear and coherent explanations of the world," explains Zmigrod, who works at the Department of Psychology at Cambridge University, explaining the results on ORF.

Although they “did not put the participants in the brain scanner”, the scientist assumes that those affected are predisposed to a reduction in complexity in the brain.

This assumption opens up new possibilities in prevention work, as the ORF scientist emphasizes.

For this, efforts should be made in the areas of education and media in particular.

Because: "If people are flexible in their thinking, the probability of turning to extreme ideologies decreases."

Another aspect that the study proves is the different thinking of “conservatives” and “liberals”.

In the case of tasks that required a quick response, it was found that more conservative people took their time and chose a more steady and therefore slower approach.

Meanwhile, liberals tended to be quicker in the selection - even if this made them less precise in their answers.