Fathali M. Moghaddam’s

Question 1

What is Fathali M. Moghaddam’s theory called, and what does it say In general terms?

Answer 1

The stairway to terrorism is a theory of how normal people becomes terrorists. It describes how a normal person among all the other normal persons slowly moves up the stairase, on which they become more and more radicalized and in the end becomes terrorist.

Question 2

What are the six steps in Fathali M. Moghaddams stairway to terrorism?

Answer 2

• Ground floor: Psychological Interpretation of Material Conditions (normal people)
• First floor: Perceived Options to Fight Unfair Treatment (People a not able to get what they want)
• Second floor: Displacement of Aggression (People are frustrated. Displacement of aggression happens)
• Third: Moral disengagement. (Us vs. them mentality.)
• Fourth: Solidification of Categorical Thinking and the Perceived Legitimacy of the Terrorist Organization. (Cathegorical thinking – think of others as either good or bad)
• Fifith: The Terrorist Act and Sidestepping Inhibitory Mechanisms

Question 3

What characterizes the ground floor in Fathali M. Moghaddams stairway to terrorism?

Answer 3

• Psychological Interpretation of Material Conditions
• On the ground floor, all the normal people of the world are, focused on living their ordinary life.
• Sociological process here is: RELATIVE DEPRIVATION. You feel that you are being deprived of something relatively to other people. People wish to get more social status (through money, marriage, social accomplishments or anything else). They have a sense of lack of fairness, that they have not received what they deserved.

Question 4

What characterizes the first floor in Fathali M. Moghaddams stairway to terrorism?

Answer 4

• Perceived Options to Fight Unfair Treatment
• People start looking for a solution to the unfair treatment.
• Two relevant psycological factors: 1) Do people have the TALENT to improve the situation 2) Do they think the STRUCTURE allows them to improve it.
• If no to these two, then the person is likely to move to the third floor.
• Characterized by displacement of aggression – people are mad at their situation, but starts projecting this aggression to something else. Example: Hitting a child, because of frustration with life.

Question 5

What characterizes the second floor in Fathali M. Moghaddams stairway to terrorism?

Answer 5

• Moral disengagement
• Us-versus-them mentality.
• They get disengaged from their normal morality
• They start adopting a moral, which says, that it is okay to perform terror to the others. They will not yet do it, but they find it morally acceptable.
• On the macro-level the terror-organizations presnts themselves at the only ones who can solve the problem and on a micro, they present themselves as a “home” to the people who are frustrated.

Question 6

What characterizes the fourth step in Fathali M. Moghaddams stairway to terrorism?

Answer 6

• Solidification of Categorical Thinking and the Perceived Legitimacy of the Terrorist Organization.
• The us-versus-them mentality gets consolidated.
• The members get separated into foot soldiers and people who should be in the organization for longer. The foot soldiers are the ones who have to commit suicide attacks.
• The foot soldiers get divided in small groups, and are intensely trained.
• There are no way of turning back. Have breached the law, and therefor can not go back to the normal society. Only solution is violence.
• The “other” gets dehumanized.

Question 7

What characterizes the fift step in Fathali M. Moghaddams stairway to terrorism?

Answer 7

• Fifith: The Terrorist Act and Sidestepping Inhibitory Mechanisms
• Everyone who does not fight their case is against them. Including civilians. Therefor, it is okay to kill them.

Question 8

What is the most effective way of preventing terrorism?

Answer 8

• Raise the living standard of people in poor countries
• Globalization have made it worse, because people in poor countries can look at western culture and society, and want to have the same.