The Awe Effect: How Radical Beliefs Take Hold in the Brain
Briefly

The article explores how awe can significantly accelerate the process of radicalization by imprinting extreme beliefs. During moments of awe, individuals experience heightened neuroplasticity, enabling swift ideological shifts. These profound experiences can be triggered by encounters with charismatic figures or monumental narratives. Awe reshapes mental frameworks and enhances memory consolidation, creating lasting impressions of extremist ideologies. This mechanism likens to flashbulb memories but is deeper, termed archetypal imprinting. It elucidates why individuals often vividly remember their initial exposure to radical beliefs, as these moments are fundamentally transformative.
Awe accelerates radicalization by imprinting extremist beliefs, making them feel self-evident and unshakable.
Radicalization is not merely a learned process; it can become imprinted in an incredibly short window of time due to heightened neuroplasticity during awe-inducing events.
The Role of Awe in Memory and Ideological Commitment emphasizes how cognitive accommodation occurs when one encounters vastness, reshaping their worldview.
These experiences function similarly to flashbulb memories but with deeper cognitive integration, termed archetypal imprinting.
Read at Psychology Today
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