Dr Sara Savage

Senior Advisor
Dr Sara Savage is a social cognitive psychologist and pioneer of a proprietary methodology called IC Thinking which is an empirically validated, cognitive and neuroscience-informed methodology that supports sustainable deradicalisation. The IC Thinking methodology increases people’s psychological resilience to violent extremist recruitment strategies and works with detained and rehabilitated violent extremists. It has been used for prevention purposes in schools, universities, madrassas, and refugee camps. IC Thinking helps participants ‘see through’ radicalisation strategies, which ‘trick’ normal brain processes and shift perception of the social world towards extreme, simplified, black-and-white thinking.

IC Thinking interventions have achieved impressive results with extremists from the Taliban in Pakistan, Al-Shabaab in Kenya, Islamic State (IS) child soldiers, and IS-affected communities as well as in prison settings. IC Thinking has been tested with over 120 different groups of participants from diverse cultural backgrounds in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Central Asia. It is adaptable to any extremist or socially polarised ideology and the unique push/pull/enabling factors that motivate a target group. Independent evaluations and assessments have found sustained changes in structure of cognition and behaviour, at intervals ranging from three months up to two years post-intervention. 

Dr Savage previously worked as Senior Research Associate in the Psychology Department and the Religion Research Group at Cambridge University. She holds PhD and BSc degrees with a background in the arts. 

Contact Info

Email : [email protected]