Psychology of Terrorism - National Criminal Justice Reference Service

11. Bandura, A. (2003). The origins and consequences of moral disengagement: A social learning perspective. F.M. Moghaddam, & A. J. Marsella (Eds), Understanding Terrorism: Psychosocial Roots,consequences, and interventions . Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Call Number: Key Quote Summary: This essay explores the intellectual artifacts and mechanismsthat enable terrorists to do what they do- to kill indiscriminately in the name of political, social orcultural causes.-While it is widely recognized that there are no neat explanations of terrorism, that has not deterredresearch that seeks to discover underlying causes in the make-up of the terrorist personality.-Without presuming too much, it is fair to say that a psychologist begins with an individual whosecharacteristic way of behaving is formed out of a complex interaction between emotional andneurological materials and social experiences.-In his comprehensive review of terrorism (Laqueur 1987), notes that the analyses of motivations areas numerous and diverse as are the definitions and myriad forms of the phenomenon.-Freedman observes that: “A psychological profile of a model terrorist cannot be drawn. Thepersonalities are disparate.”-We now turn to techniques of emotional concealment that enable the violent to rid themselves of theterrorist taint.-To engage openly in indiscriminate violence, the individual must “morally disengage.”-In this regard, Bandura’s model of the socio-psychological process is instructive.-The “conversion process” of the socialized into dedicated revolutionaries is not only achieved byaltering their personality structures, aggressive drives or even moral standards. By cognitivelyrestructuring the moral value of crimes committed against specific groups so that they can be donefree from censuring doubt, the tasks of making violence morally defensible is facilitated.-Responsibility can also be diffused such that an emotional division of labor can occur. Terroristorganizations are created and this means that there is a fractional compartmentalization of tasks.Moreover, decision-making in a hierarchy of authority may easily induce otherwise sensitiveindividuals to behave inhumanely because no single person need feel responsible for policies arrivedat collectively or imposed by distant, unknown others in the organization’s leadership cadres.-Immersion in the group’s ideology, specifically in its dehumanization of the enemy, can deadenmoral sensibilities.-The mesmerizing power of an ideology is not limited to politically desperate and naďve individualsready to cling to any set of ideas that promise relief from despair.-Unlike more group-restricted or privatized paradigms, ideologies are a rhetoric of public discourseand produce what may be called “dramaturgic accentuation”.-Ideologically inspired political programs drive contemporary movements that are labeled“terrorist”. Ideologies would appear to be basic foundational elements in cultivating themotivational structure and “mind-set” of the believer/adherent.-The importance of a socially inspired belief system resides in its power to communicate, ideals,evaluations, and goals among group members. A major feature of ideological thought is thehistorical consciousness it breeds among those who embrace it.-Ideologies are thus concerned with things to come. As a method of interpretation ideologies mustpossess some logic.-As programs of actions, terrorist insurgencies are rarely isolated phenomena: they tend to reflectdiffuse sympathies, desires and aspirations of larger segments of society.-Ideology plays a role in sculpting the social universe: it aids by providing names, predicates,gestures, pictures, and interpretations of events. The “recipe knowledge” of ideology rewriteshistory in the interest of a political agenda, and enables the terrorist to re-structure social reality inways that lend themselves to revolutionary interventions.-To the extent that the organization and its social and political theories become the grounding ofidentity, the task of the terrorist then is not simply an empirical one of proselytizing; more isinvolved. First there is the job of spreading the word; secondly, one must do what is needed, whichoften entails defending the group against those who seek to discredit it.-Whether the strategies of disobedience involve only symbolic protest or lead social movements,they seek to persuade the political leadership that it must attend to the opposition’s proposals so thatmodifications and changes satisfactory to all parties can be achieved.-If a group believes it is treated unjustly, if the political process is unresponsive and offers little