Extinction Burst: The Desperate Ways Extremists and their Movements React When Losing Ground
Welcome back to PsyberSpace. I'm your host, Leslie Posten. And today we're exploring a powerful psychological framework that helps us understand something many people are struggling with. Why we're seeing such an intense, rapid escalation in extremist behavior in The U S from the streets on up to the Oval Office and what it really means. The key lies and understanding a phenomenon called extinction bursts, a predictable pattern that occurs when long standing negative behaviors begin to lose their effectiveness.
Leslie Poston:What looked like strength is often actually a last gasp before decline. Consider the dramatic siege of The US capital on 01/06/2021, a vivid illustration of an extinction burst where extremist groups facing the loss of political power reacted violently. Similarly, traditional industries like coal mining have launched intense lobbying efforts and public campaigns as renewable energy sources gain ground, showcasing how sectors facing obsolescence respond with heightened aggression to preserve their relevance as well. Concept of extinction bursts emerged from behavioral psychology and it offers us profound insights into both individual and group behavior. When a previous rewarded behavior stops receiving reinforcement, it doesn't simply disappear.
Leslie Poston:It often intensifies dramatically before extinction. This pattern is deeply rooted in how our brains process the loss of expected rewards. Think about how this manifests in everyday life. A child who always got attention by acting out will temporarily escalate their behavior when their parents begin ignoring it. A gambler who's losing money might bet even more aggressively before finally quitting.
Leslie Poston:These individual examples help us understand the larger social dynamics at play. What makes this pattern particularly relevant today is how it manifests in group behavior. When groups that have held social power for generations often by brute force or other harmful behaviors begin to lose that power. They often react not with quiet acceptance, but with an intense escalation of the very behaviors that are losing effectiveness. This isn't a sign of strength or resurgence.
Leslie Poston:It's actually a predictable response to losing power. The psychology behind this is illuminating Groups, like individuals, create feedback loops that temporarily intensify behaviors, losing their social effectiveness. Members validate each other's fears and actions, creating echo chambers that can make the extinction burst more dramatic and longer lasting than individual cases. First, there's the phenomenon of group polarization where members of a group tend to adopt more extreme positions than they would individually. When a group feels its power slipping, this polarization intensifies.
Leslie Poston:Members don't just validate each other's fears, they amplify them pushing the group towards more extreme positions and actions. Second, groups develop shared narratives about their loss of power that can make the extinction burst more intense. While an individual might eventually recognize that their behavior isn't working, groups can create elaborate explanations for why their loss of influence is temporary or unjust fueling more extreme attempts to regain control. Third groups provide something individuals don't have a social support system that can temporarily shield members from the consequences of their actions. This social buffering can make extinction bursts last longer because the usual social pressures that might curtail extreme behavior are temporarily blocked by the group's internal support system.
Leslie Poston:To understand why we're seeing such intense reactions now in The US, we need to look at the broader context of social change. The United States Of Twenty Twenty Four is dramatically different from The United States of even a few decades ago. We're seeing fundamental shifts in demographics, values, and social structures that are making previously dominant exclusionary ideologies increasingly unsustainable. Consider these changes: younger generations are the most diverse in U. S.
Leslie Poston:History. They're also more educated, more likely to support inclusive policies, and less likely to hold traditional hierarchical views about society. Urban areas, which tend to be more diverse and progressive, are growing while rural populations decline. Traditional power structures are being challenged by new forms of organization and communication. These changes create a profound challenge to those whose identity and social position were built on an older, more exclusionary system.
Leslie Poston:When people who are used to having their worldview dominate society suddenly find it becoming a minority position, the psychological impact can be severe. And this helps explain why we're seeing such dramatic reactions now. The intensification of extreme behavior, whether in political rhetoric, public displays, or unfortunately sometimes violence isn't happening because these movements are growing stronger. It's happening because their social foundation is eroding triggering these predictable extinction bursts. What makes this moment unique is the unprecedented speed and scale of these changes.
Leslie Poston:In previous generations, social change often happened gradually, gradually enough for institutions to adapt. But today's shifts are happening at an unprecedented pace driven by multiple simultaneous forces, technological revolution, climate change, economic transformation, and generational turnover. The workforce exemplifies this rapid change. Remote work is here to stay. It didn't just change where people work.
Leslie Poston:It's transforming power dynamics, community formation, and even geographic voting patterns. When people can live anywhere while working, traditional geographic power bases erode. We're seeing this play out in places like Texas and Georgia, where an influx of remote workers is rapidly shifting longstanding political and social dynamics. Education is another catalyst. It's not just that younger generations are more educated.
Leslie Poston:They're educated differently with greater emphasis on critical thinking and global perspectives. This educational shift comes as information gatekeepers lose power. When anyone can fact check claims in real time or access primary sources directly, traditional authority structures struggle to control narratives, which explains the extinction burst targeting education right now. These overlapping changes create what sociologists call a cascade effect. Each change accelerates and amplifies others.
Leslie Poston:When youth who grew up with diverse online communities enter the workforce with different expectations, they change workplace culture as well, which affects economic patterns, which influences political power, which shapes social norms, and so on in a self reinforcing cycle of change. These patterns we're seeing today aren't new. History provides us with numerous examples of extinction bursts in response to social change. Examples can help us understand our current moment. The civil rights era provides a particularly relevant parallel.
Leslie Poston:As the legal and social foundations of segregation began to crumble, its supporters didn't simply accept the change. Instead, they intensified their resistance, often violently. This wasn't a sign of segregation's moral superiority or strength it was an extinction burst that occurred precisely because the harmful system was, rightly, losing its grip on society. The more evident it became that legal segregation was ending, the more extreme its defenders became. We saw similar patterns during women's suffrage.
Leslie Poston:As women's right to vote became increasingly inevitable, opponents didn't quietly accept the change. They escalated their rhetoric and their tactics. And again, this escalation was not a sign of strength but rather a last gasp reaction to losing power. Internationally, we saw this pattern with colonial powers in the twentieth century. As independence movements gained momentum, many colonial regimes initially responded with increased oppression and violence.
Leslie Poston:This wasn't a sign of colonialism's vitality, but rather an extinction burst as their power waned. Looking at more recent history, we saw this pattern during desegregation in South Africa. As apartheid began to crumble in the 1980s, the regime's actions became increasingly extreme. The state of emergency declared in 1985 represented a dramatic escalation of oppressive tactics precisely when international pressure and internal resistance were making apartheid's end inevitable. Looking again at the desegregation of the American South's schools, we see how several states intensified segregationist policies with some even shutting down their entire public school system rather than integrate.
Leslie Poston:Prince Edward County, Virginia closed all public schools from 1959 to 1964, creating private white academies instead. This extreme reaction, depriving all children of public education, shows how extinction bursts can lead to self defeating and self destructive behavior. We can see similar patterns in workplace discrimination. When women began entering traditionally male dominated professions in larger numbers in the 1970s, many institutions responded by intensifying discriminatory practices. Medical schools, law firms, and financial institutions often made their exclusionary practices more explicit and extreme just as they were losing the legal and social authority to maintain them.
Leslie Poston:The key insight from these historical examples is that the intensity of the extinction burst often correlates with how fundamental the threatened change is to existing power structures. When surface level privileges are threatened, the reaction might be milder, but when changes threaten core power structures and identities, the extinction burst tends to be more extreme and often more self destructive. Looking at history also shows us the importance of consistent pressure. In cases where society maintained steady pressure for change, like the international anti apartheid movement or the civil rights movement, extinction bursts eventually gave way to real transformation. But in cases where pressure was inconsistent or resistance was rewarded, harmful systems were able to adapt and persist in new forms.
Leslie Poston:After an instigation burst comes another important phenomenon spontaneous recovery. This sounds positive, but this is actually when behaviors that seem to have disappeared briefly resurface like an echo of the past. The behavior might return, but without reinforcement, each recurrence becomes weaker than the last. This helps explain why we sometimes see resurgences of extremist ideologies during times of social stress or economic uncertainty. These aren't new growths.
Leslie Poston:They're temporary resurgences of old patterns. The key is understanding that these resurgences become progressively weaker unless they find new sources of social reinforcement. This brings us to a critical point. The duration and intensity of both extinction bursts and spontaneous recovery depend heavily on societal response. When society maintains consistent non reinforcement of harmful behaviors, extinction bursts tend to be shorter and spontaneous recovery weaker.
Leslie Poston:Consider social media platforms' responses to extremist content. When platforms maintain consistent enforcement of community standards, extremist behavior tends to decline more quickly. When enforcement is inconsistent, the extinction burst can drag on longer and spontaneous recovery becomes more likely. The same principle applies to broader society. When institutions from media to law enforcement to educational systems maintain consistent responses to extremist behavior, the extinction burst phase shortens.
Leslie Poston:When responses are inconsistent or when some institutions actually provide reinforcement, the process takes longer. Let's look specifically at how media systems affect these patterns. Traditional media outlets can either help end an extinction burst or inadvertently prolong it. When media consistently contextualizes extreme behavior rather than sensationalizing it, they help society maintain a steady response. But when some outlets amplify or normalize extreme rhetoric for ratings or engagement, they provide exactly the kind of intermittent reinforcement can extend and worsen an extinction burst.
Leslie Poston:Social media platforms face similar challenges, but on a faster and larger scale, the algorithmic amplification of extreme content can create what I call extinction burst accelerators. Feedback loops where the most extreme expressions get the most engagement, temporarily convincing groups that their behavior is working even as it pushes them further from mainstream acceptance. The fracturing of our information ecosystem into separate reality bubbles presents another challenge. When groups can completely insulate themselves from contrary information, they can temporarily avoid the negative feedback that would normally help end an extinction burst. This is why consistent enforcement of platform policies, while sometimes controversial or annoying, play such an important role in the process.
Leslie Poston:Understanding these patterns isn't just about explaining what's happening. It's about knowing how to respond effectively. Three key principles emerged from both psychological research and historical experience. Let's talk about what successful community resilience looks like in practice. Across the country, we're seeing examples of communities that have found effective ways to reduce vulnerability to extremism and shorten extinction bursts through proactive community building.
Leslie Poston:First, strengthening social bonds means creating concrete opportunities for meaningful connection. This isn't about superficial networking. It's about deep community engagement Even with people you don't like. Some communities have had success with intergenerational mentoring programs that connect older and younger community members. Others have created community projects that bring diverse groups together around shared goals like community gardens or local improvement initiatives.
Leslie Poston:The key is creating what sociologists call bridging capital connections between different groups within a community, not just within your existing social circle. When people have strong connections across different parts of their community, they're less likely to be drawn into us versus them narratives that fuel extinction bursts. Maintaining institutional integrity requires active community participation. Communities that maintain regular dialogue between law enforcement and diverse community groups, for example, tend to be more resilient. Transparent local government processes, active civic organizations, and strong local media all play essential roles as well.
Leslie Poston:Education plays a particularly important role, which is why it's often a target. Communities that maintain strong adult education programs, for instance, often see reduced vulnerability to extremist messaging. This isn't just about formal education. It's about creating opportunities for lifelong learning and skill development that help people adapt to changing economic conditions. The most successful communities approach this work holistically.
Leslie Poston:They recognize that economic development, social connection, and institutional strength are all interconnected. When a community invests in all of these areas simultaneously, they create a resilience that makes it harder for extinction bursts to gain traction and easier for positive change to take root. Second, addressing root causes. Economic insecurity and social isolation make people more vulnerable during times of change. When people feel secure and connected, they're less likely to be drawn into extinction bursts or moments of spontaneous recovery.
Leslie Poston:This means addressing issues like income inequality, access to education, and community resources. Third, maintaining institutional integrity. Strong, trusted institutions help society maintain consistent responses to harmful behaviors while providing reliable alternatives. This includes everything from effective law enforcement to reliable media to transparent governance. This includes everything from effective social programs alongside law enforcement to reliable media to transparent governance.
Leslie Poston:When people trust institutions to be fair and effective, they're less likely to seek solutions and extremist alternatives. Understanding extinction bursts and spontaneous recovery gives us powerful tools for interpreting our current moment. When we see intensifying extreme behavior, we can recognize it as a sign not of growing strength but of a predictable psychological pattern indicating decline. This understanding doesn't mean that we can be complacent or comply in advance. Extinction bursts can cause real harm and consistent societal response is vital.
Leslie Poston:Annoying these patterns helps us maintain perspective and respond more effectively. The key is consistency: in our response to harmful behaviors, in building inclusive communities, and in addressing underlying social issues. The future isn't found in escalating responses to extinction bursts, but in building the kind of society that makes them obsolete. When we understand the psychological patterns at play, we can focus our energy, not just on opposing harmful movements, but on creating stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive communities. We have to build our utopian future.
Leslie Poston:It won't just generate itself automatically. Before I sign off for the day, I'd like to thank women in podcasting. This podcast is nominated for an award again this year, and I couldn't be happier. I'll put a link to vote in the show notes. Thank you for joining us on Psyber space again, and don't forget to like and subscribe so you don't miss an episode.
Leslie Poston:I'm your host, Leslie Posten, signing off. Until next time, keep exploring the fascinating connections between psychology and society. As always, stay curious.
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