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Some people just want to watch the world burn: the prevalence, psychology and politics of the ‘Need for Chaos’

Some people just want to watch the world burn: the prevalence, psychology and politics of the ‘Need for Chaos’
Some people just want to watch the world burn: the prevalence, psychology and politics of the ‘Need for Chaos’
People form political attitudes to serve psychological needs. Recent research shows that some individuals have a strong desire to incite chaos when they perceive themselves to be marginalized by society. These individuals tend to see chaos as a way to invert the power structure and gain social status in the process. Analysing data drawn from large-scale representative surveys conducted in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, we identify the prevalence of Need for Chaos across Anglo-Saxon societies. Using Latent Profile Analysis, we explore whether different subtypes underlie the uni-dimensional construct and find evidence that some people may be motivated to seek out chaos because they want to rebuild society, while others enjoy destruction for its own sake. We demonstrate that chaos-seekers are not a unified political group but a divergent set of malcontents. Multiple pathways can lead individuals to ‘want to watch the world burn’.
0962-8436
Arceneaux, Kevin
7abab751-c06f-426d-8cfb-1ef14f6c2cfd
Gravelle, Timothy B.
8d5dd570-3950-4d41-9425-2c55ec3c50a2
Osmundsen, Mathias
aa5513a3-0e4f-4a93-9395-b247f60d911e
Petersen, Michael Bang
ef0c7897-2f87-446c-a408-916d7bb52054
Reifler, Jason
426301a1-f90b-470d-a076-04a9d716c491
Scotto, Thomas J.
46d397ec-85ac-4a35-9020-552f4b493a77
Arceneaux, Kevin
7abab751-c06f-426d-8cfb-1ef14f6c2cfd
Gravelle, Timothy B.
8d5dd570-3950-4d41-9425-2c55ec3c50a2
Osmundsen, Mathias
aa5513a3-0e4f-4a93-9395-b247f60d911e
Petersen, Michael Bang
ef0c7897-2f87-446c-a408-916d7bb52054
Reifler, Jason
426301a1-f90b-470d-a076-04a9d716c491
Scotto, Thomas J.
46d397ec-85ac-4a35-9020-552f4b493a77

Arceneaux, Kevin, Gravelle, Timothy B., Osmundsen, Mathias, Petersen, Michael Bang, Reifler, Jason and Scotto, Thomas J. (2021) Some people just want to watch the world burn: the prevalence, psychology and politics of the ‘Need for Chaos’. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376 (1822). (doi:10.1098/rstb.2020.0147).

Record type: Article

Abstract

People form political attitudes to serve psychological needs. Recent research shows that some individuals have a strong desire to incite chaos when they perceive themselves to be marginalized by society. These individuals tend to see chaos as a way to invert the power structure and gain social status in the process. Analysing data drawn from large-scale representative surveys conducted in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, we identify the prevalence of Need for Chaos across Anglo-Saxon societies. Using Latent Profile Analysis, we explore whether different subtypes underlie the uni-dimensional construct and find evidence that some people may be motivated to seek out chaos because they want to rebuild society, while others enjoy destruction for its own sake. We demonstrate that chaos-seekers are not a unified political group but a divergent set of malcontents. Multiple pathways can lead individuals to ‘want to watch the world burn’.

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Published date: 22 February 2021

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 500599
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/500599
ISSN: 0962-8436
PURE UUID: 9c91e0ce-3791-4672-97ae-a055db9a144a
ORCID for Jason Reifler: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1116-7346

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Date deposited: 06 May 2025 17:00
Last modified: 07 May 2025 02:13

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Contributors

Author: Kevin Arceneaux
Author: Timothy B. Gravelle
Author: Mathias Osmundsen
Author: Michael Bang Petersen
Author: Jason Reifler ORCID iD
Author: Thomas J. Scotto

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