In the aftermath of a terrorist attack, we’re always left asking the question: how could
anyone do this to another person?
While nothing can excuse their actions, maybe psychology can help us understand the mind
of a terrorist.
Hello everyone, I’m Julian and this is DNews.
Terrorists are defined as a non-state group that use violence against non-combatants for
political gain.
Their goal is to instill fear, and they achieve it by targeting innocent people where they
feel safe.
This brutality is hard for us to comprehend, so some may reason that a terrorist must be
mentally unstable in some way.
According to psychologist John Horgan, who has written multiple books on the subject
of terrorism, psychologists have been trying for over 40 years to identify the personality
disorder that defines a terrorist.
Are they psychopathic?
Are they anti-social?
Is there one defining characteristic that unites them?
Unsatisfyingly, there is no one archetype that every terrorist neatly conforms to.
There are risk factors and common threads though.
Recruits are often motivated to join terrorist groups because they feel alienated or disenfranchised,
or think they are the victims of a social injustice.
They may be frustrated by other methods of political change, want to take immediate action,
and don’t have a problem with violence against the state.
Psychologist Steve Taylor from Leeds Beckett University in the UK writes that it’s often
adolescent men who are drawn to this life, because they’re at a point when they are
looking for a sense of belonging and purpose.
Once in the group, they develop an “us” vs “them” mentality that makes it easy
to switch off empathy to the victims of their attacks.
To them the deaths they cause are more akin to destroying an object than ending a life.
Strangely though, sometimes they draw arbitrary lines.
Horgan interviewed a former Irish Republican Army bombing instructor who left the group
after the IRA murdered a pregnant officer.
Other people Horgan spoke to became disillusioned when their group robbed a bank.
To them the killing was acceptable, but theft was not.
Sometimes though, recruits are just bored and looking for adventure, or they’re worried
about not leaving a lasting legacy.
People with little going for them in their former lives are more likely to support the
actions of a group rather than form opinions as an individual and voice dissent.
This groupthink can lead to further radicalization of all the members.
Wanting to support and look out for each other also becomes another motivation for killing.
Dr. Clark R. McCauley, director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict
at Bryn Mawr College, points out, modern militaries use the same techniques by stripping soldiers
of individuality and placing the goals of the group first.
Terrorists who do disagree with the group will feel pressure to remain silent, because
they fear the consequences of voicing dissent.
Horgan points out they don’t have the option to really leave either, as state governments
will offer little sympathy to deserters.
It’s tempting to boil down terrorists to one trait or other.
The so-called "Islamic State," or ISIS, is a group that’s stated goal is to create,
well, an islamic state, and so a facile conclusion is their faith is to blame.
But according to political scientist Dr. Max Abrahms, groups like that are quote, ”ignorant
people with respect to religion and they are generally the newest members to the religion."
Horgan agrees with that assessment, saying that young converts are more susceptible to
recruiters because they lack a deeper religious knowledge that would help them reject extremist
arguments.
But Horgan insists that even if a perfect model of a terrorist could be identified,
it wouldn’t be very useful.
After all you can’t arrest people just because they have the potential to join violent extremists.
Instead he says we should be focusing on understanding the paths that lead them there and giving
them options to get out.
Plenty of people who join up with radicals eventually become disenchanted.
They realize that the group doesn’t really serve their ideals, or isn’t the utopian
society the recruiters made it out to be.
Of course, Horgan and the people who study terrorists have a tough job cut out for them.
Terrorist groups rely on fear tactics because they are tiny minorities, and the people who
leave and are willing to talk to researchers are an even smaller subset of that.
It’s a pressing problem that’s tough to study, so hypotheses abound but there’s
very little in the way of actual data.
Once again, more research is needed.
Even though there are a lot of paths people take to join groups like ISIS, for some reason
an unusually high number come from one town in Belgium.
Lisette explains why over on Seeker Daily.
Whether you’ve been directly affected by terrorism or not, we encourage you to find
a way to help.
Doing good anonymously is great, but if you want to share what you’ve done or give others
ideas on how to get involved, we have a comments section down there.
Let’s try and make the world a better place, and I’ll see you next time on DNews.