Behavioral extremism (e.g., violent extremism, extreme humanism, or extreme athleticism) elicits fear, revulsion, pity, or admiration depending on the context. Its common image as exotic and esoteric makes extremism fascinating to audiences worldwide. The negative, antisocial and positive, prosocial cases of extremism are generally regarded as poles apart and as based on qualitatively different psychologies. By contrast, we propose that all cases of extremism, across different manifestations and levels of phylogeny, involve the same psychological mechanism. This mechanism consists of a motivational imbalance wherein a given need becomes dominant to the extent of overriding other basic concerns and liberates behaviors that the latter formerly constrained. We discuss the antecedents and consequences of such imbalance and provide empirical evidence to support our claim.

行为极端主义（例如，暴力极端主义，极端人文主义或极端运动能力）会根据情况引起恐惧，反感，怜悯或钦佩。它作为异国和深奥的共同形象使极端主义着迷于全世界的观众。极端主义的消极，反社会和积极的，亲社会的情况通常被认为是截然不同的，并且是基于性质上不同的心理学。相比之下，我们建议，跨越不同表现形式和系统发育水平的所有极端主义案件都涉及相同的心理机制。这种机制由动机失衡组成，其中给定的需求在压倒其他基本问题的程度上变得占主导地位，并解放了后者先前所约束的行为。