About Nafees Hamid
Dr Nafees Hamid is a cognitive scientist of political violence, social fragmentation, and cohesion at King's College London. He conducts psychology, neuroscience, and anthropological research with jihadists, white nationalists, conspiracists, and armed group members, as well as civilians. He was one of the lead researchers on the first-ever brain imaging studies of jihadist supporters. He is the Research and Policy Director of XCEPT at King's College London, which looks at the role of trauma and mental health in pathways to peace versus violence in fragile and conflict affected states.
The research he has conducted and directed has covered Western Europe, the Balkans, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Morocco, South Sudan, and is collaborating on research on former armed actors in Sri Lanka, Phillipines, and Colombia. He has advised many NGOs, inter-governmental organisations, and governments including on the national strategies for the rehabilitation of and reintegration of foreign fighters in Tunisia and Kosovo. He has advised and briefed on CVE policies to many organisations including the US State and Defense Departments, the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development office, UK Home Office, UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, the Global Coalition, and the French Prime Minister's office.
Upcoming Book
The Extremist Mind: What it says about human nature and the modern world
A King’s College London cognitive scientist weaves together memoir with evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, political economics, and his fieldwork with jihadists, white nationalists, and QAnon devotees to explain how people develop and act on extremist beliefs. The book shows how extreme ideology is being absorbed into mainstream society, with more of us creeping towards the edge of political violence – including you and me – and the steps needed to counteract this trend.
Publishing in 2026 via Bloomsbury Sigma (UK) and BenBella (US)
Theatrical Show
The Extremist Mind: My journey scanning the brains of extremists
A solo show version of the book. This show tells the personal story of Nafees' journey to interview and scan the brains of members of extremist organisations. He portrays the different characters he met along the way including his research assistant who radicalised into jihadism right under his nose and his former flatmate who became a QAnon devotee - and how he helped both pull back from the edge of violence.
New York Times Op-Vid
I Studied The Brains of Potential Terrorists. Here's What I Learned | NYT Opinion
In this NYT Op-Vid, Nafees shows us what each one of us can do to limit the virtual blast radius of a terrorist attack.
Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman
With the help of Morgan Freeman, Nafees takes us on a journey of how he reached out to extremists around the world and used social network analysis to demonstrate how to disrupt their activities.
Netflix - The Mind Explained
Watch the episode "Brainwashing" on Netflix's popular series The Mind Explained. In season 2 episode 5, Nafees explains the neuroscience and psychology of why people join conspiracist movements.