Where does extremism start? In many ways, Germany is a unique laboratory for that question. Recent right-wing anti-immigrant incidents have been more prevalent in the old East Germany than in the west. A study that came out today in Berlin sought to answer why.

Its answer: Under Communism, East Germans became socialized to have an “exaggerated need for harmony, ‘purity’ and order,” the report states. This has resulted in a “prevailing mentality” of xenophobia in places.

The study holds insight into the rise of right-wing populism in places like Hungary, Austria, and Poland. But in that way, it also offers a glimpse of a solution. Socialization is not irreversible, after all. It is the message that a society sends, repeated over years, sinking into thought and becoming action. But that message can be changed. What is needed is a similar commitment to a new message.