Study title

The "Religious Fundamentalism and Radicalization Survey (RFRS)" is a large-scale cross-sectional survey conducted among Muslims, Christians, Jews, and non-believers in Cyprus, Germany, Israel, Kenya, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Turkey, and the USA. The survey is designed specifically to test hypotheses related to determinants of religious radicalization. It includes a broad range of variables concerning religiosity, religious knowledge, and fundamentalism, as well as a survey experiment concerning the effect of religious scripture on religious violence legitimation. The data collection in Cyprus, Germany, Israel, Kenya, Lebanon, Palestine, and Turkey was funded by the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, whereas the data collection in the USA was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (#435-2012-0922). The fieldwork for the survey took place between November 2016 and June 2017.

The data set currently only includes the variables used in the following publications:

Kanol, Eylem (2021): Explaining Unfavorable Attitudes Toward Religious Out-Groups Among Three Major Religions. In: Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Early view articles. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12725

Koopmans, Ruud; Kanol, Eylem; Stolle, Dietlind (2021): Scriptural legitimation and the mobilisation of support for religious violence: Experimental evidence across three religions and seven countries. In: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 47 (7), pp. 1498-1516. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1822158

Kanol, Eylem (2024): Who Supports Jihadi Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq? Assessing the Role of Religion- and Grievance-based Explanations. In: Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19434472.2024.2306872

Analyses of other parts of the data set are ongoing. Once these are completed, the entire data set will be made publicly available.