The Staircase to Terrorism - Fathali-Moghaddam

1 The Staircase to TerrorismA Psychological ExplorationFathali M. MoghaddamGeorgetown UniversityTo foster a more in-depth understanding of the psycholog-ical processes leading to Terrorism , the author conceptu-alizes the terrorist act as the final step on a narrowingstaircase .Although the vast majority of people, even whenfeeling deprived and unfairly treated, remain on the groundfloor, some individuals climb up and are eventually re-cruited into terrorist organizations .These individuals be-lieve they have no effective voice in society, are encour-aged by leaders to displace aggression onto out-groups,and become socialized to see terrorist organizations aslegitimate and out-group members as evil .The currentpolicy of focusing on individuals already at the top of thestaircase brings only short-term gains.

2 The best long-termpolicy against Terrorism is prevention, which is made pos-sible by nourishing contextualized democracy on theground disagreements about the definition of ter-rorism (Cooper, 2001 )and claims that one per-son s terrorist is another person s freedomfighter, there is general agreement that Terrorism has be-come a monstrous problem in many parts of the world andthat all efforts must be made to end it. For the purpose ofthis discussion,terrorismis defined as politically motivatedviolence, perpetrated by individuals, groups, or state-spon-sored agents, intended to instill feelings of terror and help-lessness in a population in order to influence decisionmaking and to change behavior. Psychologists have a vi-tally important responsibility to combat Terrorism because(a )subjectively interpreted values and beliefs often serve asthe most important basis for terrorist action (Bernholz,2004); (b) the actions of terrorists are intended to bringabout specific psychological experiences that is, terrorand helplessness (Moghaddam & Marsella, 2004); and (c) Terrorism often has extremely harmful psychological con-sequences (Schlenger et al.)

3 , 2002). Psychologists are con-tributing in important ways to a better understanding ofterrorism and are providing more effective approaches tocoping with its individual and communal health conse-quences (Danieli, Brom & Waizer, in press; Horgan &Taylor, 2003; Moghaddam & Marsella, 2004; North &Pfefferbaum, 2002; Pyszczynski, Solomon, & Greenberg,2003; Silke, 2003; Silver, Holman, McIntosh, Poulin, &Gil-Rivas, 2002; Stout, 2002). However, there is an urgentneed for greater attention to the social and psychologicalprocesses that lead to terrorist better understanding of Terrorism is essential to thedevelopment of more effective policies to combat thisglobal problem. Critical assessment of the available evi-dence suggests that there is little validity in explanations ofterrorism that assume a high level of psychopathologyamong terrorists (Crenshaw, 1981; Ruby, 2002 )or thatterrorists come from economically deprived backgroundsor have little education (Atran, 2003).

4 Attempts to profileterrorists ( , Fields, Elbedour, & Hein, 2002 )and toidentify demographic and socioeconomic factors associ-ated with Terrorism ( , Ehrlich & Liu, 2002 )can yieldgreater benefits when incorporated within a broader con-ceptual account of processes leading to terrorist acts. Thepresent discussion is intended as a contribution to a moredynamic, comprehensive account of the social and psycho-logical processes leading to Terrorism . A central proposi-tion is that Terrorism can best be understood through a focuson the psychological interpretation of material conditionsand the options seen to be available to overcome perceivedinjustices, particularly those in the procedures throughwhich decisions are made (Tyler & Huo, 2002).TheStaircasetotheTerroristActTo provide a more in-depth understanding of Terrorism , Ihave used the metaphor of a narrowing Staircase leading tothe terrorist act at the top of a building.

5 The Staircase leadsto higher and higher floors, and whether someone remainson a particular floor depends on the doors and spaces thatperson imagines to be open to her or him on that floor. Thefundamentally important feature of the situation is not onlythe actual number of floors, stairs, rooms, and so on, buthow people perceive the building and the doors they thinkare open to them. As individuals climb the Staircase , theysee fewer and fewer choices, until the only possible out-come is the destruction of others, or oneself, or both. Thiskind of decision tree conceptualization of behavior hasproved to be a powerful tool in psychology. For example,Latane and Darley (1970 )conceptualized helping behavioras the outcome of five choices that lead an individual eitherto help or not help others in an Staircase to Terrorism is conceived as having aground floor and five higher floors, with behavior on eachCorrespondence concerning this article should be addressed to Fathali , Department of Psychology, White Gravenor Building, 3rdfloor, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057.

6 E-mail: March 2005 American PsychologistCopyright 2005 by the American Psychological Association 0003-066X/05/$ 60, No. 2, 161 169 DOI: characterized by particular psychological the ground floor, perceptions of fairness and feelings ofrelative deprivation dominate. In conditions in which themillions of people who occupy the ground floor perceiveinjustice and feel relatively deprived, some individualsfrom among the disgruntled population will climb to thefirst floor in search of solutions. Those who reach the firstfloor seek ways in which to improve their situation andachieve greater justice. But if they do not see possibilitiesfor individual mobility and do not feel that they can ade-quately influence the procedures through which decisionsare made, they are more likely to keep who reach the second floor but still per-ceive grave injustices experience anger and frustration, andin some circumstances they are influenced by leaders todisplace their aggression onto an enemy.

7 Individuals whoare more prone to physically displace aggression ontoenemies climb further up the most important transformation that takes placeamong those who reach the third floor is a gradual engage-ment with the morality of terrorist organizations; theseindividuals now begin to see Terrorism as a justified strat-egy. Those who become more fully engaged with themorality of terrorist organizations and keep climbing up thestaircase are ready for recruitment as active to terrorist organizations takes place onthe fourth floor, where potential terrorists learn to catego-rize the world more rigidly into us-versus-them and tosee the terrorist organization as the last floor the fifth specific individuals areselected and trained to sidestep inhibitory mechanisms thatcould prevent them from injuring and killing both othersand themselves, and those selected are equipped and sent tocarry out terrorist wider context of the Staircase metaphor is theinternationalization of trade and mass communications,with the consequent vast movement of people and infor-mation around the globe.

8 The rapidly increasing flow ofpeople and information across national borders has greatlyextended the global influence of the West generally and theUnited States specifically (including in the realm of psy-chology; Moghaddam, 1987). The spread of American andWestern values and lifestyles has had two broad and insome ways contradictory consequences. On the one hand,major segments of societies in Asia, Africa, and LatinAmerica are strongly attracted to the affluent lifestyle andpolitical and social freedoms associated with the UnitedStates and the West. On the other hand, there is growingfrustration and anger in many non-Western societies thattheir higher expectations for improved economic condi-tions and greater political freedom are not being met. Inaddition, there is deep anxiety in many societies that localcultural and linguistic systems are being swept away andthat traditional identities and allegiances are threatened bythe massive sweep and reach of Americanization.

9 Au-thoritarian forces have attempted, sometimes with consid-erable success, to harness this widespread discontent and touse it opportunistically to bolster both dictatorial rule andanti-American sentiments, particularly in a number of Is-lamic points need to be clarified at the outset about thestaircase metaphor. First, the metaphor is intended to pro-vide a general framework within which to organize currentpsychological knowledge and to help direct future researchand policy; it is not intended as a formal model to be testedagainst alternatives. Metaphors have proved highly usefulin psychological science (see discussions in Leary, 1990)and can serve a constructive role in helping to betterexplain the roots of Terrorism . Second, the Staircase meta-phor is intended to apply only to behavior encompassed byterrorism as defined earlier in this discussion; it is notintended to apply to other types of minority influencetactics.

10 I briefly discuss the policy implications of thestaircase metaphor at the end of this Floor: Psychological Interpretation ofMaterial ConditionsThe vast majority of people occupy the foundational ground floor, where what matters most are perceptions offairness and just treatment. To understand those who climbto the top of the Staircase to Terrorism , one must firstcomprehend the level of perceived injustice and the feel-ings of frustration and shame among hundreds of millionsof people down at the ground floor. The central role ofpsychological factors is underlined by evidence that mate-rial factors such as poverty and lack of education areproblematic as explanations for terrorist acts. In the WestBank and Gaza, support for armed attacks against Israelitargets tends to be greater among Palestinian individualswith more years of education (Krueger & Maleckova,2002).