"Embrace infamy" – The role of "positive" emotions in extreme right-wing violence

Recent research has highlighted the importance of emotional dynamics in maintaining or destroying white supremacist groups has also emerged (Latif, Blee and Simi, 2018). Whilst much of the extant research on far-right violence focuses on the role of "negative" emotions like anger, this paper focuses instead upon the role that a cluster of "positive" emotions including adoration and admiration have played in sustaining and indeed inspiring a cumulative momentum of far-right terrorism that began with the Christchurch terrorist attack in 2019 and continues today. Through a case study of extreme right-wing "Saints culture" – an online phenomenon in which racist mass murderers are revered as "saints" – this paper examines how such figures and their acts of violence are elevated within such subcultures to the status of "moral exemplars". Drawing on the literature regarding the emotional role of moral exemplars (Humphrey, 1997) and psychological research on the emotional impact of "witnessing excellence in action" (Algoe and Haidt, 2009), this paper takes seriously the construction of a cannon of "saints," "martyrs" and "disciples" in both terrorist manifestos and online fora. It does so to highlight the role that the "other-praising" emotions, including elevation, gratitude, and admiration, play in creating an intense emotional identification with the cause ("identity fusion") and ergo in provoking behavioral change – moving individuals from radical ideas to radical action. Emotions such as admiration and adoration are explored here in relation to their capacity to inspire young men – arguably those already prone to "fame seekin2" – to emulate previous acts of extreme right-wing violence by committing their own racist atrocities leading to their own elevation within the pantheon of saints.