Advances in Psychology Logo Advances in Psychology Logo
Commentary | Special Issue: Psychology of Violent Extremism

Why the ‘salad bar’ might actually help extremism research – A reply to Horgan and Shayler

Stephane Baele ORCID
https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00060
Published: July 8, 2026
Copyright: The authors (CC BY 4.0)

Baele, S. (2026). Why the ‘salad bar’ might actually help extremism research – A reply to Horgan and Shayler. advances.in/psychology, 1, e359159. https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00060

Baele, Stephane. "Why the ‘salad bar’ might actually help extremism research – A reply to Horgan and Shayler." advances.in/psychology, vol. 1, no. 1, 2026, e359159. https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00060.

Baele, Stephane. 2026. "Why the ‘salad bar’ might actually help extremism research – A reply to Horgan and Shayler." advances.in/psychology 1 (1): e359159. https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00060.

Baele S. Why the ‘salad bar’ might actually help extremism research – A reply to Horgan and Shayler. advances.in/psychology. 2026;1(1):e359159. doi:10.56296/aip00060.

Baele, S. (2026) 'Why the ‘salad bar’ might actually help extremism research – A reply to Horgan and Shayler', advances.in/psychology, 1(1), e359159. Available at: https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00060.

Download .RIS Download .bib
This paper responds to Horgan and Shayler's (2026) critique of the "salad bar extremism" metaphor and associated concepts. While sympathetic to the authors' main concerns (epistemological confusion, ontological indeterminacy, and empirical scarcity), this reply contends that each is overstated.  While composite extremist worldviews have always existed and traditional radical ideologies remain dominant, we nonetheless argue that hybrid extremism is a genuinely intensifying phenomenon captured by gradually more accurate concepts, rooted in deep societal shifts, and produced by well-documented causal mechanisms.

No citation data available yet.

Download PDF Back to article