Anti-feminist beliefs are the most prevalent form of violent extremism in Australia and almost one-in-five men believe feminism should be resisted by force if necessary.
A University of Melbourne and University of Queensland report has found misogynistic and racist beliefs are "significant" predictors of most forms of violent extremism.
An online survey of 1020 Australians showed men were more likely to support various types of violent extremism than women.
Almost 20 per cent of men who took part believed feminism was damaging society and should be resisted by force "if necessary", with support highest among those aged 18 to 29.
Those with strong attitudes about gender roles were about five times more likely to support religious violent extremism or white supremacist violent extremism.
The findings suggest misogynistic attitudes are more widespread in the general population than previously believed.
"Were Australian authorities to recognise anti-feminist beliefs as a form of violent extremism, it would represent the most prevalent form of violent extremism in Australia and ought to be seen as a significant threat to national security," the report said.
Nearly half (49 per cent) of men surveyed agreed women "often" make up sexual assault allegations and almost a third agreed women who don't leave abusive partners are responsible for ongoing abuse.
People aged 18 to 29 were most likely to excuse physical violence by men against female partners and younger people surveyed were also most likely to express racist attitudes.
Researchers did not examine why younger people held those attitudes but report author Sara Meger said sociological studies attribute it to online echo chambers and the enormous influence of internet figures like Andrew Tate, who is facing human trafficking charges in Romania.
"What surprised me with the young cohort was some of those measures on acceptability of violence against women and how much it differed from older millennials and Gen-Xers," she said.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show one-in-five adult women and one-in-15 adult men have been a victim of sexual violence since the age of 15.
More than one-in-five Australians admit to perpetrating some form of sexual violence in adulthood, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology.
Dr Meger said researchers hadn't originally considered anti-feminist violent extremism as its own type of extremism, however the results showed it needed to be isolated as a distinctive category.
The findings were particularly important in light of the Bondi Junction stabbing attack in April that left five women and a man dead, as ASIO's definition of terrorism does not include attacks on women.
Police at the time declined to speculate when asked if the killer was motivated by a hatred of women, citing a lack of information.
"What I hope this study might do is is get the Commonwealth government and also state governments to rethink how we think about political and ideological motivations for political violence," Dr Meger said.
"And include an awareness that rising rates of misogyny is actually a security issue for our country."
Key recommendations include rolling out evidence-based awareness raising, more funding for resources to counter sexism and racism and to include more experts in the field on decision-making bodies.
Dr Meger also called for more collaboration between organisations that work to prevent mass attacks and family violence agencies.
"We might actually be able to create some early warning indicators that are more useful for identifying when someone might be at risk of actually radicalising into that mass violent attack."
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