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A new study published in the journal *Nature Human Behaviour* by researchers from the University of Oxford’s Internet Institute and the University of Amsterdam has investigated the psychology of people’s choices to join online hate groups. The findings show that, for a few key reasons, people are likely to gravitate towards highly extreme groups.

The research team developed a theoretical model of online groups. Then, they analysed over 100,000 Reddit communities (known as subreddits), of varying ideological leaning, from mainstream to extremely hateful. The focus was on people’s choices to join new groups.

### Key points:

*   **Extreme groups are particularly good at attracting new members** and tend to be more stable than moderate groups.
*   **Moderate groups risk losing members to both radical and mainstream groups.** They are positioned in the middle, and thus are not particularly good at attracting new members. They are also less stable and more volatile.
*   **Radical groups use more extreme language** to indicate how far they are from the mainstream and their willingness to deviate from perceived social norms.
*   The research offers a useful tool for understanding how radicalisation takes place online.

Professor Matthew Williams, a co-author of the study, from the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, said: ‘Counter-intuitively, our research found that the greater a group’s extremism, the more likely it is to grow and survive. Being an extremist group means there is less chance of people leaving, whilst at the same time being particularly good at attracting new members. This is why extremist groups are so dangerous, but also so resilient.’

Dr. Nafees Hamid, a co-author and Senior Researcher (Honorary) at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, added: ‘In addition to the practical real-world policy implications of our research for understanding and preventing online extremism, the modelling approach developed in this study can be applied to understanding the dynamics of other types of online groups and the general principles of group membership and radicalisation.’

The study used large-scale behavioural data (over 100,000 groups) from Reddit, where researchers could observe the actual choices people made to join groups. The model developed in the study can be used to understand many different types of online groups, the general principles of group membership, and even the processes of online radicalisation and de-radicalisation.

Read the full paper: [*Behavioural mechanisms of online extremism*](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01858-y) in *Nature Human Behaviour*.