A storied personal history and an interest in how people form judgements and beliefs, led START’s Arie Kruglanski to the study of radicalization. Now, his work in the field has led to an interest in him. Two recent articles examine Kruglanski’s life and his life’s work.
This feature article written for Terp Magazine highlight’s how Kruglanski’s colorful past influences his current research. It details his whole life, including his narrow escape from the Nazis in Poland when he was 3-years-old and his nerve-wracking encounter hiding from the Soviet Army when he was 5.
This article written in Thrive Global focuses on Kruglanski’s current opinions on extremism. More specifically, how the word extremist can apply to saints just as it can be applied to the world’s most infamous terrorists. Kruglanski discusses what brings a person to put a cause before anything else and the difference between those who do it in a peaceful way and those who do it in a violent way.
As a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, he has served as the lead investigator on multiple START projects, mostly focusing on the radicalization and deradicalization of extremists. His most recent START projects include this one aimed at preventing the radicalization of scientists in the Middle East and this one about Salafi-Jihadist use of the internet. He is currently working on a START research project evaluating successful deradicalization programs.