Identity attacks in threatening communications: how and why they are performed

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This is one of my favourite articles. Article highlights: Functional approach to identity attacks: This research unveils a 'functional' linguistic fingerprint in extremist discourse, demonstrating how language crafts identity attacks through ‘Evaluative Textbites’ and ‘Attitudinal Priming.’ Evaluative textbites for forensic analysis: The study offers a detailed procedure for examining identity attacks, identifying authors’ attitudinal profiles and the social values driving these attacks. Repetition priming and attitudinal semantic priming: It explores how these mechanisms signal threatening stances, providing a nuanced understanding of identity fusion and extremist identity work. Affective, appreciation-, and judgement-based identity attacks: These attacks justify violence against perceived threats, dehumanise out-groups, and condemn their behaviours, showcasing rhetorical strategies to legitimise in-group violence and delegitimise the out-group. Social value categories and identity fusion mechanisms: By analysing the social values linked with repeated linguistic patterns, the article highlights motivations behind violent extremism, suggesting that concerns over in-group identity and essence drive these behaviours.

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