The loss of significance is widely recognized as an underlying psychological mechanism in radicalization. However, less is known about the epistemic and dispositional factors that help explain why some individuals channel their responses into activism, whereas others adopt radical ways to restore significance. Drawing on Significance Quest Theory, the present study examines the roles of need for cognitive closure and sensation seeking in shaping pathways from perceived loss of significance to activism and radicalism intentions. Data were collected from 320 participants (74.69% female; M = 21.91 years, SD = 4.36; age range = 17–49 years) and analyzed using structural equation modeling to test a moderated mediation framework. The findings indicate that significance loss predicts the need for cognitive closure and directly predicts both activism and radicalism intentions. Sensation seeking emerges as a robust predictor of both outcomes, with a stronger association observed for radicalism intention. Specifically, individuals high in sensation seeking show stronger radicalism intentions when they also experience elevated need for cognitive closure. No significant indirect effect of loss of significance through need for cognitive closure was found. This pattern suggests that the transition from significance loss to radical outcomes operates primarily through direct and conditional mechanisms rather than sequential mediation. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of individual differences in sensation seeking in understanding how epistemic motivations contribute to radicalization and underscore the distinct psychological pathways underlying activism and radicalism intentions.

Authors:
Norberta Fauko Firdiani, Universitas Diponegoro, Indonesia

About the Presenter(s)
Norberta Fauko Firdiani, M.Sc is a lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Diponegoro. Her interests include radicalization, terrorism, and deradicalization, and she is currently engaged in mixed-methods research on extremist pathways.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/norberta-fauko-firdiani-51a00a18b

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