Books 

Feeling Big, Feeling Small: The human yearning for significance and wonder

Routledge •  2026 • Sophia Moskalenko & Arie W. Kruglanski   

The authors introduce the theory of Dynamic Magnitude: the idea that human flourishing depends on our ability to move fluidly between striving for significance and yielding to forces greater than ourselves. Through everyday life examples, the authors explore how modern societies have come to privilege Bigness while neglecting the human need for Smallness. They outline how imbalance between these states fuels burnout, polarization, addiction, anxiety, depression, and radicalization, while their healthy alternation underlies creativity, intimacy, resilience, and meaning. 

De Gruyter Handbook of the Psychology of Terrorism

De Gruyter •  2026 • Edited by Clark R. McCauley, Sophia Moskalenko & Gina Scott Ligon

An overview of the latest scientific insights into the psychology of radicalization, terrorism, and counter-terrorism. It outlines the theories of terrorist behavior, examining both risk and protective factors, the role of leadership, environments that can be identified as radicalization breeding grounds, and the way emotions impact terrorism. It introduces how we can predict the potential for terrorist violence, highlighting the latest programs of deradicalization and the psychological tools they employ. 

The Psychology of the Extreme (The Psychology of Everything)

Routledge •  2025 • Arie W. Kruglanski & Sophia Moskalenko 

Paints extremism as a force that can affect all aspects of culture and people’s choices in everyday settings. The authors explore the underlying psychology behind what makes people act in extreme ways, whether this is in destructive ways (such as gambling, terrorism and political violence) or in constructive ways (such as successful creators and scientists). Demonstrating how extremism can manifest as both pro-social and anti-social through case studies, the authors discuss possible interventions and redirections toward more constructive tendencies.

Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the QAnon mind 

Redwood Press (Stanford University Press) •  2021 • Mia Bloom & Sophia Moskalenko

Selected as the New York Times Editors’ Pick and Top 10 Recommended Read, it tracks QAnon's unexpected leap from the darkest corners of the internet to the filtered glow of "yogi-mama" Instagram. The authors discuss how the conspiracy theory ensnared millions of women, who identify as members of "pastel QAnon," under the banner of  "saving the children." It shows how a conspiracy theory rooted in centuries-old anti-Semitic hate has adapted to encompass local grievances and metastasized around the globe, fed by COVID-19, which supercharged conspiracy theories that spurred a wave of Q-inspired violence. 

Radicalization to Terrorism: What Everyone Needs to Know 

 Oxford University Press •  2020 • Sophia Moskalenko  & Clark McCauley

Proposes twelve mechanisms that can move individuals, groups, and mass publics from political indifference to sympathy and support for terrorist violence. It synthesizes original and existing research to answer the questions raised after each new terrorist attack, including whether there is a typical profile of a terrorist, what motivates them to do it, and whether attacks are preventable.  It offers a rigorously informed overview of the insights that will enable readers to understand where terrorism comes from and how best to respond to it. 

The marvel of martyrdom: The power of self-sacrifice in a selfish world 

 Oxford University Press •  2019 • Sophia Moskalenko  & Clark McCauley

Through real-life stories interwoven with research on altruism, happiness, and radicalization, the authors investigate how self-sacrifice can change lives and how martyrs can change the world. The book starts large- with famous and influential martyrs such as Jesus and Gandhi- and ends small- with ordinary people whose own experiences of self-sacrifice give martyrdom its political power. It reflects martyrdom's recurring spirit in the changing landscape of the book's setting- from the Roman Empire to 19th-century Russia to Nazi Germany to post-War II India to present-day Ukraine.

Friction: How conflict radicalizes them and us

 Oxford University Press •  2016 • 2nd Edition •  Revised and Expanded  • Sophia Moskalenko  & Clark McCauley

This revised edition recounts and builds on the twelve psychological mechanisms of political radicalization that can lead people to support political violence. Now, the authors apply these mechanisms to analyze recent cases of lone-wolf terrorists and radicalization to jihadist violence. The authors advance the Two-Pyramid Model of Radicalization that differentiates between opinion radicalization and action radicalization. Ultimately, various strategies for countering these diverging forms of radicalization are introduced.

How groups help us feel in control. Group identification and sense of control can conquer fear of death 

Lambert Academic Publishing  •  2012 • Sophia Moskalenko  

Humans value their group memberships, be it their nation or their identification with a particular sports team's fan base. However, groups don't necessarily provide tangible benefits and can demand a heavy price, including financial contributions, adherence to time-consuming rituals, and limitations on freedom. This book reveals a psychological reward for identifying with groups: perception of control. It demonstrates why control is so important to us, and how groups can help us gain or restore the feeling that we are in charge of our lives. 

Friction: How radicalization happens to them and us

 Oxford University Press •  2011 • Clark McCauley & Sophia Moskalenko

The recipient of the David O. Sears Book Award in 2013 for the best book in mass politics, it identifies twelve mechanisms of political radicalization that account for social shifts toward the normalization and evocation of political violence. Terrorism is an extreme form of such radicalization, and the authors draw on wide-ranging case histories to illustrate its ripples across time and cultures. From Russia in the late 1800s, to the US in the 1970s, the twelve mechanisms illuminate how unexceptional people are moved to exceptional violence in the conflict between states and non-state challengers.