Radicalism, Extremism, Fundamentalism: International Study Finds Numerous Commonalities – and Certain Differences

From a social sciences perspective, people with radical, extremist, or fundamentalist attitudes are similar in some respects: In most cases, they are younger and less educated men who feel that they are not taken seriously enough. This is one of the key findings of a research team led by professor Marc Helbling, sociologist at the University of Mannheim focusing on Migration and Integration and Executive Board member of the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES). Together with his MZES colleague Nina Fadarkhan Osenbrügge and Dr. Sebastian Jungkunz (University of Halle and University of Bamberg), Helbling has, for the first time, systematically compared radicalism, extremism, and fundamentalism in Germany and across various European countries on a large scale. “Using newly developed and validated measures, we make commonalities and differences more clearly visible and can better understand the backgrounds of these tendencies – this facilitates developing effective prevention and countermeasures,” Marc Helbling says, outlining the relevance of the study. 

Based on survey data from more than 6,000 respondents from Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, the team investigated the extent to which radical, extremist, and fundamentalist attitudes can be explained by similar or different factors at an individual level – and how much support these people show for political violence. “We find many commonalities in the sociodemographic and sociopsychological backgrounds of radical, extremist, and fundamentalist people,” Helbling states. He goes on to explain that in many cases, they are younger men with a relatively low level of education who also feel that they are not taken seriously enough.

Despite all these commonalities, the research team also finds differences: For example, women rather tend to be left-wing radicals than right-wing ones. And while older people are generally less inclined to hold fundamentalist, extremist, and left-wing radical attitudes, they are not less right-wing radical than younger people. According to the study, religious people are generally more susceptible to radicalism, extremism, and fundamentalism. This applies equally to Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims. 

The freely accessible study “A comparison of individual needs and support of violence among radicals, extremists and fundamentalists in Western Europe” was recently published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 

Text: Nikolaus Hollermeier / April 2026