Terrorism 3 Flashcards
What is a good research strategy to detect self-serving biases
an excellent research strategy to detect self-serving biases is to complete qualitative research where researchers can interpret the participant’s whole narrative
Should we conduct interviews with terrorists
there is a real debate in this area regarding morality: 1) giving a voice to terrorists for their illegitimate actions; 2) publishing terrorism and ignoring the victims
Putra, Sukabdi Study Basic concepts and reasons behind the emergence of religious terror
Two-hour focus groups with 40 terrorists (including 27 prisoners)
United States Institute of Peace Study Why youth join al-Qaeda
interviews with 2000+ foreign fighters (mostly detainees); interviews with friends, family; archival research using public records
McCauley, Moskalenko Friction How radicalisation happens to them and us
case studies (archival research)
Most people assume what about terrorist (2)
1) terrorists have a certain profile; terrorists are mentally ill
How does the media portray terrorists
as people who are mentally ill/loners
What did the United States Institute of Peace conclude
Many al Qaeda fighters appear to have led normal lives before leaving the relative safety and security of home and family. When they become foreign fighters, they travel great distances to kill innocent people they have never met, in the name of an organisation they may not even have joined, for a cause they may not fully comprehend. They make a mental transition so that distant events seem so personal and so egregious that they are compelled to join someone else’s fight. Each has his own motivation to join an extremist movement, but there are still 3 things that he is not: not crazy - they made a measured choice, not characterised by a single economic profile; not from strong religious backgrounds
2 explanations for why terrorism perceived as caused by personality
fundamental attribution error; self-defensive bias
Fundamental attribution bias
the tendency to focus on the role of personal causes and underestimate the impact of situations on other people’s behaviour
Why does the fundamental attribution bias arrive
this bias arrives because very little is known about others’ situation and therefore focus on dispositional (or personality) factors
Self-defensive bias
the tendency to blame the victim to reduce personal anxiety
Self-defensive bias in terrorism
indicating that terrorists are not normal (mental illness) or have extreme views (right wing, religious etc) then people decrease their fear they or other members of the community will become radicalised
What is currently agreed on about terrorist profile
what is commonly agreed from the available data is that there is no single terrorist profile that can be used to identify at risk individuals reliably
4 major motivations for terrorism
there is no single motivation however the four major ones are: 1) identity seeking; 2) revenge seeking; 3) status seeking; 4) thrill seeking
