7: ‘HITTING HOME…’ LESSONS FROM NARRATIVE STUDIES AND GLOBAL CVE INITIATIVES FOR CREATING EFFECTIVE COUNTER-MESSAGING

The starting premise of this paper is that people are generally wired to accept information better when it is conveyed through metaphors. We tend to believe narratives when it is conveyed as stories and intersubjective myths that resonate with our beliefs and experiences. Hence, we are receptive to cultural codes and religious beliefs, which are shared stories and myths. Jihadism and other extremist ideologies similarly have shared stories and myths, which are used to transmit their master narrative in a form that an individual in a particular context can identify with. However, when the focus is on combating extremist ideologies, one can overlook the stories and myths used to convey this ideology. Defeating an idea sometimes requires dismantling the myth that supports it. This paper will demonstrate how an effective counter-narrative can do this. Furthermore, there is a wealth of available knowledge from narrative studies about creating persuasive arguments, ranging from philosophical ideas from antiquity to those advocated by prominent motivational speakers today, to explain what contributes to a persuasive argument that ‘hits home’. This paper will illustrate how some of these ideas can be adapted for use in countering violent extremism (CVE).