People don't change. Are you sure? Deradicalization of opinion among young people
2025-07-16
Since the Chilean social outburst in 2019, the country has experienced a process of political polarization and radicalization. The social support and participation in violent, disruptive, and radical protests rapidly increased, particularly among young individuals. However, in 2022, a rapid deradicalization process took place and ended with the constitutional proposal derived from the social outburst being rejected. Nowadays, national surveys reveal that the support for radical and violent protests decreased, and the support for police repression (earlier severely criticized) increased. This rapid and unprecedented process of radicalization and deradicalization invites the exploration and identification of the factors associated with the deradicalization of opinions in young people. With this view, we will conduct qualitative research using semi‐structured interviews with a sample of male and female young adults that radicalized their opinions due to the outbreak in 2019 and changed their minds later on.