Terrorism is not a particularly new problem — it’s been a part of the world since civilization first organized. Despite how old it is, what we know about terrorist motivations and psychology is fairly limited. There isn’t a whole lot of empirical, scientific research on this topic (although there is an abundance of theory and anecdotal reports). But luckily, psychologists are slowly changing that, according to an article in the American Psychological Association’s monthly magazine, Monitor on Psychology.
One researcher, John Horgan PhD at Pennsylvania State University, found that people who are more open to terrorist recruitment and radicalization tend to:
- Feel angry, alienated or disenfranchised.
- Believe that their current political involvement does not give them the power to effect real change.
- Identify with perceived victims of the social injustice they are fighting.
- Feel the need to take action rather than just talking about the problem.
- Believe that engaging in violence against the state is not immoral.
- Have friends or family sympathetic to the cause.
- Believe that joining a movement offers social and psychological rewards such as adventure, camaraderie and a heightened sense of identity.
A lot of this is not particularly surprising, as we learn time and time again from the profiles constructed in the media of famous terrorists after-the-fact. But the insights gained from talking to ex-terrorists helps us better understand individual terrorists’ motivations:
For instance, based on what he’s gleaned about why people leave organizations, a particularly promising strategy may be highlighting how the promised glamorous lifestyle never comes to pass — an experience poignantly recounted by a former terrorist now in hiding. The man told Horgan he was lured into a movement as a teen when recruiters romanticized the cause. But he soon discovered his comrades held sectarian values, not the idealistic ones he had, and he was horrified when he killed his first victim at point-blank range.
“The reality of involvement is not what these kids are led to believe,” says Horgan. “Speaking with repentant former terrorists, many with blood on their hands, offers an extraordinary opportunity to use the terrorists’ own words and deeds against them.”
Arie Kruglanski PhD, co-director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), conducted a study that surveyed thousands of people in 15 countries. In the yet-unpublished research, he found that “Muslims who have a more collectivistic mentality are more likely to support terrorist attacks against Americans than those with more individualistic leanings. The research also found that the lower people’s reported personal success in life, the greater their tendency to endorse collectivistic ideas and to support attacks against Americans. The findings suggest that joining terrorist groups may confer a sense of security and meaning that people do not feel as individuals.”
Psychologist Clark McCauley PhD, a co-investigator at START and director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at Bryn Mawr College, believes that too much focus is on terrorist behaviors and their motivations, while ignoring the larger picture of how governments can unintentionally be reinforcing some of the terrorist’s actions:
[I]f terrorists commit an attack and a state uses extreme force to send a punishing message back, the terrorists may use that action to drum up greater anti-state sentiment among citizens, lending justification to their next actions. Yet research focuses almost solely on terrorist actions and neglects the important other side of the equation, he contends.
So how do you combat terrorism, if not by sheer force (which, as we’ve seen, is largely ineffective)? Kruglanski and other researchers have some ideas, by implementing anti-terrorism programs that are delivered to captured terrorist prisoners. The programs have three parts:
- An intellectual component involving moderate Muslim clerics who hold dialogues with imprisoned detainees about the Qu’ran’s true teachings on violence and jihad.
- An emotional component that defuses detainees’ anger and frustration by showing authentic concern for their families, through means such as funding their children’s education or offering professional training for their wives. This aspect also capitalizes on the fact that detainees are weary from their lifestyles and imprisonment.
- A social component that addresses the reality that detainees often re-enter societies that may rekindle their radical beliefs. A program in Indonesia, for instance, uses former militants who are now law-abiding citizens to convince former terrorists that violence against civilians compromises the image of Islam.
Similar programs like this can help entire radical Islamic groups renounce violence when well-implemented and embraced, as the original article notes with specific examples. The key is teach potential terrorists that much of their terrorist teachings were based upon lies, that you need to address their anger and frustration, and help them find a life within everyday society. This doesn’t seem like rocket science, and yet today, we still seem to ignore the potential of these interventions and strategies for helping to reduce terrorism in the world.
Although it’s lengthy, if you’re interested in this topic, the full article is well worth a read.
Read the full article: Understanding terrorism
9 comments
There is a tipical archetype of terrorist in the literature: Michael Kolhaas (written by Heinrich von Kleist) Very exciting novel, I suggest it for reading.
Interesting article, with many important points to contribute. I wonder, though, if we are still self-limiting by giving too little attention to the interactive dialogue between the terrorist group and its presumed constituency. Much of the relevant literature seems to see this dialogue largely in terms of propaganda, but if terrorism is as much about perceptions and leveraging perceptions, it seems this area may warrant more attention and study.
I think envy may be a factor too.
By killing someone who is more rich, powerful, fortunate, you become superior to them, even if you kill yourself in the process.
A lot of people seem to hate America, or increasingly China, simply because they appear to be “top dog”, which is what they want to be.
Von Clausewitz called war “diplomacy by other means.” Terrorism is “war by other means,” carried out by people who wholeheartedly reject the notion that there can and should only be “one gun” in a civilized society.
I’m not so sure that terrorists approach their tasks with a psychology that is based on lies. I think it’s that they approach their tasks with the standpoint that human life is less important than their political goals. That human life, in many cases, include their own.
Here’s what we in the civilized world are up against. The leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, was quoted in 2006 thusly:
“We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because they love life and we love death.”
‘Til that attitude changes? Nothing changes. Absolutely nothing
The lack of a really effective impartial international judicial system can’t help, often terrorists really are victims, if there was a fair justice system, who knows, perhaps they would perfer this (I realise this won’t be happening in a hurry, the powers that be might prefer a bit of terrorism to internatinal justice!)
Without a respected, effective justice system within any given nation many of its’ inhabitants might be behaiving like terrorists, taking punishment clumsily into their own hands, trapped in barbaric cycles of revenge.
It’s my understanding it is often like this in areas remote from the law and was often like this before the state in Europe, maybe not always.
hello, i liked this artical. however, i dont think that we are adressing other iues with in this topic. i am meaning that we are focused on muslum groups and we do not look at the groups in the us. I mean what about the white saprimasy groups that have peopl joyn them every day. just because they do not go out and cause harm any more dont you thing they should have a look too? If you do not know these groups they are the skin heads, airyun alinces, the kkk, and the amarican nokcess. Thouse are the ones that are know. what about the ones that are not? i am just saying that they should consider domistic tarisum. thanks fred
I liked this article too but I completely agree with Fredericka in that we often focus too much on terrorists who are muslims but disregard all others that don’t fall into this group.
Although it may seem that all terrorists are muslim, we are actually only made to believe this as other terrorist groups do gain the same attention as muslim terrorists.
Within psychology this is not right as the understanding we gleam from studying one group cannot be generalised to other groups as they may be different in some way or other. Therefore, we are not truly understanding terrorism. xx Marie
I read your work on terrorism and I, being a PhD scholar am looking for a foreign reviewer who can review my thesis. I request you “if you would like to be my reviewer?
will weoght for your reply.
Rehana
Perception is a huge contributor to why terrorist organizations are able to recruit new soldiers. By manipulating and planting false realities into the minds of vulnerable individuals, particularly adolescents, a placebo-like effect begins to take place. The characteristics listed that researchers have attributed to the likelihood of an individual joining a terror group are frequently exhibited when coalition forces strike back or when a terrorist group pillages local villages. Recruiters for these organizations are able to take advantage of psychological weaknesses within their recruits to further carry out their attacks.
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