Extreme Overvalued Beliefs and Violence: Examining the Role of Personality Pathology

Extreme overvalued beliefs (referred to as EOB hereafter)present a new challenge for forensic evaluations (1). As wehave seen with the Covid-19 pandemic, polarisation,conspiracy theories and violent ideologies are becoming apublic health concern that requires immediate attention(2,3). The behavioural manifestation of EOB is oftenconfused with psychosis but is a non-delusional yetpathological fixation shared by a sub-community thatpresents a real threat to both the individual and society(4,5). The presence of EOB is a risk factor for radicalisation,individualistic escalations to violence, and plays a role incases of lone-wolf terrorism, stemming from movementssuch as far-right extremism, anti-LGBTQ, and theInvoluntary Celibates (4). While these cases are relativelyrare, EOB can increase more mundane malignant attitudesand behaviour that are particularly violent in nature (4,6)and previous studies have shown that the relationshipbetween EOB and personality is important in various casesof mass violence (6). This is important to examine,understand and prevent, given the implications for thefuture of risk assessment and clinical treatment (6).Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine individualfactors in relation to violence and EOB, with a special focuson narcissism and the growing Incel movement. Narcissismis of particular interest given previously established links toCovid-19 conspiracy theories (3), crime (7), and cases ofextreme violence (8).