Sebastian Jungkunz is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Socio-Economics at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, Post-Doctoral Visiting Fellow at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences, Germany, and project leader at Zeppelin University, Germany. He received his PhD from the University of Bamberg, Germany, and was a visiting scholar at Waseda University, Japan. He is currently working on projects concerning the impact of socio-economic problems on cognitive health and political participation, the development of political attitudes among adolescents, and the measurement and explanation of political and religious extremism.

1. Introduction.- 2. Definition.- 3. Theory.- 4. Research Design: From Theory to Application.- 5. Measuring Extremist Attitudes.- 6. The Distribution of Extremist Attitudes within German Society.- 7. The Origins of Political Extremism.- 8. Conclusion.