Nafees Hamid
Kings College London, War Studies, Post-Doc
- Nafees Hamid is a research fellow at ARTIS International, an associate fellow at the International Centre for Counter... moreNafees Hamid is a research fellow at ARTIS International, an associate fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague, and a Frederick Bonnart-Braunthal Trust scholar in the University College London's department of Security and Crime Science. His research focuses on the psychology of radicalization as well as the rise of right-wing nationalism in Europe. As a field researcher he conducts ethnographic interviews, large-scale surveys, psychology field experiments, crime mapping, social network analysis and neuroimaging studies. These broad range of studies has led him to being a visiting scholar at the Santa Fe Institute where he worked with faculty on developing mathematical complex systems models of radicalization based on his ethnographic and survey data; and a visiting scholar at the Neuroimaging Unit at the Autonomous University of Barcelona where worked with neuroscientists on conducting the first ever brain scan studies of jihadist supporters and radicalized individuals. In Europe, his primary field sites are Barcelona, Paris, Lunel, Brussels, London and Birmingham yet he works collaboratively with ARTIS’ expansive research network on various conflicts around the world. He earned his graduate degree in Cognitive Science from École Normale Supérieure in Paris and completed a double major in Cognitive Science and Psychology at the University of California, San Diego. Previous to joining ARTIS, his research primarily focused on moral and political psychology as well as the cognitive impacts of HIV/AID’s medication, early detection markers of autism, and the embodiment of language. He has worked with many political organizations that have researched and communicated the effects of private campaign contributions on political decision-making, in the US. His career started as a professional stage and screen actor in the US and he continues to write and consult on film and TV scripts related to radicalization and international conflicts.edit
Research Interests: Neuroscience, Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Political Violence and Terrorism, and 11 morePolitical Extremism/Radicalism/Populism, Medicine, FMRI, Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience, Functional Connectivity, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Sacred Values, Neurosciences, Pyshology, Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex, and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex
International audienceMoral Inferences is the first volume to thoroughly explore the relationship between morality and reasoning. Drawing on the expertise of world-leading researchers, this text provides ground-breaking insight into the... more
International audienceMoral Inferences is the first volume to thoroughly explore the relationship between morality and reasoning. Drawing on the expertise of world-leading researchers, this text provides ground-breaking insight into the importance of studying these distinct fields together.The volume integrates the latest research into morality with current theories in reasoning to consider the prominent role reasoning plays in everyday moral judgements. Featuring contributions on topics such as moral arguments, causal models, and dual process theory, this text provides a new perspectives on previous studies, encouraging researchers to adopt a more integrated approach in the future.Moral Inferences will be essential reading for students and researchers of moral psychology, specifically those interested in reasoning, rationality and decision-making
Behavioral data on Willingness to Fight and Die scores from pre and post manipulation
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Violent intergroup conflicts are often motivated by commitments to abstract ideals such as god or nation, so-called ‘sacred’ values that are insensitive to material trade-offs. There is scant knowledge of how the brain processes costly... more
Violent intergroup conflicts are often motivated by commitments to abstract ideals such as god or nation, so-called ‘sacred’ values that are insensitive to material trade-offs. There is scant knowledge of how the brain processes costly sacrifices for such cherished causes. We studied willingness to fight and die for sacred values using fMRI in Barcelona, Spain, among supporters of a radical Islamist group. We measured brain activity in radicalized individuals as they indicated their willingness to fight and die for sacred and non-sacred values, and as they reacted to peers' ratings for the same values. We observed diminished activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), inferior frontal gyrus, and parietal cortex while conveying willingness to fight and die for sacred relative to non-sacred values—regions that have previously been implicated in calculating costs and consequences. An overlapping region of the dlPFC was active when viewing conflicting ratings of sacred value...
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Violent intergroup conflicts are often motivated by commitments to abstract ideals such as god or nation, so-called “sacred” values that are relatively insensitive to material incentives or disincentives. There is scant knowledge of how... more
Violent intergroup conflicts are often motivated by commitments to abstract ideals such as god or nation, so-called “sacred” values that are relatively insensitive to material incentives or disincentives. There is scant knowledge of how the brain processes costly sacrifices for such cherished causes. We studied willingness to fight and die for sacred values using fMRI among supporters of a radical Islamist group from different neighborhoods in and around Barcelona, Spain. We measured brain activity in radicalized individuals as they indicated their willingness to fight and die for sacred and non-sacred values, and as they reacted to peers’ ratings for the same values. We observed diminished activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), inferior frontal gyrus, and parietal cortex while participants conveyed willingness to fight and die for sacred relative to non-sacred values - regions that have previously been implicated in calculating costs and consequences. These differences could not be attributed to differences between sacred and non-sacred values in emotional intensity, familiarity or salience. An overlapping region of dlPFC was active when viewing conflicting ratings of sacred values from peers, to the extent participants were sensitive to peer influence, suggesting that it is possible to induce flexibility in the way people defend sacred values. Our results are consistent with a view that “devoted actors” motivated by an extreme commitment towards sacred in-group values rely on distinctive neurocognitve processes that can be identified
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Violent intergroup conflicts are often motivated by commitments to abstract ideals such as god or nation, so-called 'sacred' values that are insensitive to material trade-offs. There is scant knowledge of how the brain processes... more
Violent intergroup conflicts are often motivated by commitments to abstract ideals such as god or nation, so-called 'sacred' values that are insensitive to material trade-offs. There is scant knowledge of how the brain processes costly sacrifices for such cherished causes. We studied willingness to fight and die for sacred values using fMRI in Barcelona, Spain among supporters of a radical Islamist group. We measured brain activity in radicalized individuals as they indicated their willingness to fight and die for sacred and non-sacred values, and as they reacted to peers' ratings for the same values. We observed diminished activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), inferior frontal gyrus, and parietal cortex while conveying willingness to fight and die for sacred relative to non-sacred values—regions that have previously been implicated in calculating costs and consequences. An overlapping region of dlPFC was active when viewing conflicting ratings of sacred va...
What can brain scans of radicalized jihadists tell us about how they react to what they perceive as attacks on their sacred values? In episode 58, we're joined by Nafees Hamid from Artis International who discusses his open access... more
What can brain scans of radicalized jihadists tell us about how they react to what they perceive as attacks on their sacred values? In episode 58, we're joined by Nafees Hamid from Artis International who discusses his open access article "Neuroimaging 'will to fight' for sacred values: an empirical case study with supporters of an Al Qaeda associate," which was published on June 12, 2019 in the journal <em>Royal Society Open Science</em>.<br>https://www.parsingscience.org/2019/09/17/hamid/<br><br>
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Violent intergroup conflicts are often motivated by commitments to abstract ideals such as god or nation, so-called 'sacred' values that are insensitive to material trade-offs. There is scant knowledge of how the brain processes... more
Violent intergroup conflicts are often motivated by commitments to abstract ideals such as god or nation, so-called 'sacred' values that are insensitive to material trade-offs. There is scant knowledge of how the brain processes costly sacrifices for such cherished causes. We studied willingness to fight and die for sacred values using fMRI in Barcelona, Spain among supporters of a radical Islamist group. We measured brain activity in radicalized individuals as they indicated their willingness to fight and die for sacred and non-sacred values, and as they reacted to peers' ratings for the same values. We observed diminished activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), inferior frontal gyrus, and parietal cortex while conveying willingness to fight and die for sacred relative to non-sacred values—regions that have previously been implicated in calculating costs and consequences. An overlapping region of dlPFC was active when viewing conflicting ratings of sacred va...
We distinguish two pathways people may follow when they join violent groups: compliance and internalization. Compliance occurs when individuals are coerced to join by powerful influence agents. Internalization occurs when individuals join... more
We distinguish two pathways people may follow when they join violent groups: compliance and internalization. Compliance occurs when individuals are coerced to join by powerful influence agents. Internalization occurs when individuals join due to a perceived convergence between the self and the group. We searched for evidence of each of these pathways in field investigations of former members of two renowned terrorist organizations: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) (Study 1) and Islamist radical groups (Study 2). Results indicated that ex-fighters joined LTTE for reasons associated with both compliance and internalization but that ex-fighters joined Islamist radical groups primarily for reasons associated with internalization. When compliance occurred, it often took the form of coercion within LTTE but involved charismatic persuasion agents within Islamist groups. This evidence of systematic differences in the reasons why fighters enter violent groups suggests that strateg...
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Many prevention and countering of violent extremism experts place too much emphasis on the radicalising power of online mass distributed messaging by violent extremist groups. Instead, Nafees Hamid argues that radicalisation takes place... more
Many prevention and countering of violent extremism experts place too much emphasis on the radicalising power of online mass distributed messaging by violent extremist groups. Instead, Nafees Hamid argues that radicalisation takes place in a social ecology within which the messaging of terrorist groups plays only a small role. This article shows that people are resistant to mass persuasion and that certain environments are more conducive to the spread of extremist messaging. Small-group dynamics are useful to explain the spread of ideas and that altering these dynamics can provide a buffer against some ideas while enabling others.
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Our longitudinal survey findings show Catalonia’s moderates growing increasingly polarized, independence supporters becoming increasingly exclusionary in their identities and more willing to accept political violence in their quest for... more
Our longitudinal survey findings show Catalonia’s moderates growing increasingly polarized, independence supporters becoming increasingly exclusionary in their identities and more willing to accept political violence in their quest for independence. These trends, along with growing evidence of a right-wing, nationalist backlash, could lead to long-term social fragmentation both within Spain and in its broader relationship with Europe.
Research Interests: Sociology, Psychology, European Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Political Psychology, and 10 morePolitical Science, Identity (Culture), Political Violence and Terrorism, Political Extremism/Radicalism/Populism, Nationalism, Radicalization, National Identity, Survey Research, Spain, and Catalonia
The young man sitting in the waiting room of our neuroimaging facility wearing skinny jeans and trainers looked like a typical Spanish 20-year-old of Moroccan origin. Yassine* was bouncy, chatting up the research assistants, and generally... more
The young man sitting in the waiting room of our neuroimaging facility wearing skinny jeans and trainers looked like a typical Spanish 20-year-old of Moroccan origin. Yassine* was bouncy, chatting up the research assistants, and generally in good spirits. He was like so many other Barcelona youths, except he openly expressed a desire to engage in violence for jihadist causes. As we took him through a battery of tests and questionnaires, we were barely able to keep him in his seat as he kept proclaiming his willingness to travel to Syria to kill himself. “I would go tomorrow, I would do it tomorrow,” he said. When we probed for the sincerity of his claim, he responded, “only if we go together. You pay for the tickets”, with a wink and a smile. Less budding foreign fighter and more extremist provocateur, he enjoyed insulting us with impunity and showed us the middle finger as he left. And yet, Yassine agreed to let us scan his brain – for the first ever brain scan study on radicalisation.
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Willingness to fight and die (WFD) has been developed as a measure to capture willingness to incur costly sacrifices for the sake of a greater cause in the context of entrenched conf lict. WFD measures have been repeatedly used in field... more
Willingness to fight and die (WFD) has been developed as a measure to capture willingness to incur costly sacrifices for the sake of a greater cause in the context of entrenched conf lict. WFD measures have been repeatedly used in field studies, including studies on the battlefield, although their neurofunctional correlates remain unexplored. Our aim was to identify the neural underpinnings of WFD, focusing on neural activity and interconnectivity of brain areas previously associated with value-based decision-making, such as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). A sample of Pakistani participants supporting the Kashmiri cause was selected and invited to participate in an functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) paradigm where they were asked to convey their WFD for a series of values related to Islam and current politics. As predicted, higher compared to lower WFD was associated with increased ventromedial prefrontal activity and decreased dorsolateral activity, as well as lower connectivity between the vmPFC and the dlPFC. Our findings suggest that WFD more prominently relies on brain areas typically associated with subjective value (vmPFC) rather than integration of material costs (dlPFC) during decision-making, supporting the notion that decisions on costly sacrifices may not be mediated by cost-benefit computation.
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Violent intergroup conflicts are often motivated by commitments to abstract ideals such as god or nation, so-called ‘sacred’ values that are insensitive to material trade-offs. There is scant knowledge of how the brain processes costly... more
Violent intergroup conflicts are often motivated by commitments to abstract ideals such as god or nation, so-called ‘sacred’ values that are insensitive to material trade-offs. There is scant knowledge of how the brain processes costly sacrifices for such cherished causes. We studied willingness to fight and die for sacred values using fMRI in Barcelona, Spain, among supporters of a radical Islamist group. We measured brain activity in radicalized individuals as they indicated their willingness to fight and die for sacred and non-sacred values, and as they reacted to peers' ratings for the same values. We observed diminished activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), inferior frontal gyrus, and parietal cortex while conveying willingness to fight and die for sacred relative to non-sacred values—regions that have previously been implicated in calculating costs and consequences. An overlapping region of the dlPFC was active when viewing conflicting ratings of sacred values from peers, to the extent participants were sensitive to peer influence, suggesting that it is possible to induce flexibility in the way people defend sacred values. Our results cohere with a view that ‘devoted actors’ motivated by an extreme commitment towards sacred values rely on distinctive neurocognitve processes that can be identified.
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Violent extremism is often explicitly motivated by commitment to abstract ideals such as the nation or divine law-so-called "sacred" values that are relatively insensitive to material incentives and define our primary reference groups.... more
Violent extremism is often explicitly motivated by commitment to abstract ideals such as the nation or divine law-so-called "sacred" values that are relatively insensitive to material incentives and define our primary reference groups. Moreover, extreme pro-group behavior seems to intensify after social exclusion. This fMRI study explores underlying neural and behavioral relationships between sacred values, violent extremism, and social exclusion. Ethnographic fieldwork and psychological surveys were carried out among 535 young men from a European Muslim community in neighborhoods in and around Barcelona, Spain. Candidates for an fMRI experiment were selected from those who expressed willingness to engage in or facilitate, violence associated with jihadist causes; 38 of whom agreed to be scanned. In the scanner, participants were assessed for their willingness to fight and die for in-group sacred values before and after an experimental manipulation using Cyberball, a toss ball game known to yield strong feelings of social exclusion. Results indicate that neural activity associated with sacred value processing in a sample vulnerable to recruitment into violent extremism shows marked activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus, a region previously associated with sacred values and rule retrieval. Participants also behaviorally expressed greater willingness to fight and die for sacred versus nonsacred values, consistent with previous studies of combatants and noncombatants. The social exclusion manipulation specifically affected nonsacred values, increasing their similarities with sacred values in terms of heightened left inferior frontal activity and greater expressed willingness to fight and die. These findings suggest that sacralization of values interacts with willingness to engage in extreme behavior in populations vulnerable to radicalization. In addition, social exclusion may be a relevant factor motivating violent extremism and consolidation of sacred values. If so, counteracting social exclusion and sacralization of values should figure into policies to prevent radicalization.
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Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Communication, Terrorism, Political Violence and Terrorism, and 14 morePolitical Extremism/Radicalism/Populism, Violence Prevention, Strategic Communication, Radicalization, Extremist Groups, Religious Extremism, Counter terrorism, Extremism, Counter Radicalization, Counter Narratives, Countering Violent Extremism, Radicalization/de-Radicalization, Terrorist Radicalization, and Terrorism and Counterterrorism
Si la question des liens entre une croyance et un passage à l’acte a toujours été l’objet de nombreuses réflexions, les motivations de ceux qui rejoignent les groupes djihadistes lui donnent une actualité particulière. Le nombre de... more
Si la question des liens entre une croyance et un passage à l’acte a toujours été l’objet de nombreuses réflexions, les motivations de ceux qui rejoignent les groupes djihadistes lui donnent une actualité particulière. Le nombre de personnes qui croient aux valeurs de ces groupes est bien plus important que celui des personnes qui les rejoignent. L'analyse du lien entre les croyances et l’enrôlement effectif implique à la fois d’étudier les profils et les parcours des recrues du djihad, les modes et les lieux de recrutement suivant les pays, mais aussi les formes de sociabilité et les valeurs qu’elles transmettent. L’ensemble de ces analyses doit être mis en rapport avec les spécificités et les évolutions des organisations, des re ́seaux et des conflits en Irak et en Syrie.
Research Interests: Sociology, Criminology, Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology, and 15 moreAnthropology, Terrorism, International Terrorism, Political Science, Political Violence and Terrorism, Political Extremism/Radicalism/Populism, Radicalization, Counter terrorism, War on Terror, Extremism, Counter Radicalization, Terrorist Radicalization, Terrorism and Counterterrorism, Radicalization and Extremism, and Youth Radicalization
Until his death in a U.S. drone strike in August 2015, Junaid Hussain was the Islamic State's most prolific English-language social media propagandist, working to incite and guide sympathizers in the United Kingdom, United States, and... more
Until his death in a U.S. drone strike in August 2015, Junaid Hussain was the Islamic State's most prolific English-language social media propagandist, working to incite and guide sympathizers in the United Kingdom, United States, and beyond to launch terrorist attacks. Before joining the jihad in Syria, Hussain was part of a hacking collective in the United Kingdom, focusing much of his attention on perceived injustices against Muslims. In many respects, he was well integrated into British society with his family home in a leafy suburb of Birmingham. A spell in prison contributed to his radicalization and his decision to move to Syria, where he married fellow extremist Sally Jones.
Research Interests: Sociology, Psychology, Sociology of Violence, Terrorism, Violence, and 29 moreInternational Terrorism, Cybercrimes, Security, Political Science, Political Violence and Terrorism, Political Extremism/Radicalism/Populism, Biography, Radicalization, Political Violence, Cyber Terrorism, Cyber crime, Counter terrorism, Cybersecurity, Jihad, Isis Cult, Salafi-jihadist groups, Cyber Security, Jihadism, al-Qaeda, Criminal profiling, Salafi-Jihadi Ideology, Counter Radicalization, Countering Violent Extremism, Jihadism and Radical Islamism, Jihadist Networks, Cybercrime-Terrorusm, Terrorism and Counterterrorism, Jihadi Salafism, and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
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Radicalization as a complex system.