Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T19:20:07.133Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Individual differences in relational motives interact with the political context to produce terrorism and terrorism-support

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2014

Lotte Thomsen ,
Milan Obaidi ,
Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington ,
Nour Kteily  and
Jim Sidanius
Lotte Thomsen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, 0317 Oslo, Norway. [email protected] Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus, 8000 Aarhus C., Denmark. Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA [email protected]://www.jennifersheehyskeffington.comhttp://harvard.academia.edu/[email protected]://projects.iq.harvard.edu/sidaniuslab/people/jim-sidanius
Milan Obaidi
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA [email protected]://www.jennifersheehyskeffington.comhttp://harvard.academia.edu/[email protected]://projects.iq.harvard.edu/sidaniuslab/people/jim-sidanius European University Institute, I-50014 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI), Italy. [email protected]://eui.academia.edu/MObaidi
Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, 0317 Oslo, Norway. [email protected] Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus, 8000 Aarhus C., Denmark. Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA [email protected]://www.jennifersheehyskeffington.comhttp://harvard.academia.edu/[email protected]://projects.iq.harvard.edu/sidaniuslab/people/jim-sidanius
Nour Kteily
Affiliation:
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208. [email protected]://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/kteily_nour.aspx
Jim Sidanius
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA [email protected]://www.jennifersheehyskeffington.comhttp://harvard.academia.edu/[email protected]://projects.iq.harvard.edu/sidaniuslab/people/jim-sidanius
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The psychology of suicide terrorism involves more than simply the psychology of suicide. Individual differences in social dominance orientation (SDO) interact with the socio-structural, political context to produce support for group-based dominance among members of both dominant and subordinate groups. This may help explain why, in one specific context, some people commit and endorse terrorism, whereas others do not.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , August 2014 , pp. 377 - 378
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Henry, P. J., Sidanius, J., Levin, S. & Pratto, F. (2005) Social dominance orientation, authoritarianism, and support for intergroup violence between the Middle East and America. Political Psychology 26(4):569–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, A. K., Sidanius, J., Pratto, F., Levin, S., Thomsen, L., Kteily, N. & Sheehy-Skeffington, J. (2012) Social dominance orientation: Revisiting the structure and function of a variable predicting social and political attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 38(5):583–606.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kteily, N. S., Sidanius, J. & Levin, S. (2011) Social dominance orientation: Cause or “mere effect”? Evidence for SDO as a causal predictor of prejudice and discrimination against ethnic and racial outgroups. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 47:208–14.Google Scholar
Kteily, N., Sidanius, J., Pratto, F., Levin, S. & Saab, R. (in preparation) Social dominance orientation and group identification predict support for non-normative violence in tandem.Google Scholar
Lankford, A. (2013c) The myth of martyrdom: What really drives suicide bombers, rampage shooter, and other self-destructive killers. Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Levin, S., Henry, P. J., Pratto, F. & Sidanius, J. (2003) Social dominance and social identity in Lebanon: Implications for support of violence against the West. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations 6(4):353–68.Google Scholar
NTB, Norwegian News Agency. (2012) Breivik uten empati, men ikke psykotisk (Breivik without empathy, but not psychotic). Aftenbladet, April 11th, 2012. Available at: http://www.aftenbladet.no/nyheter/terror/Breivik-uten-empati_-men-ikke-psykotisk-2955002.html Google Scholar
Obaidi, M., Thomsen, L. & Sidanius, J. (in preparation) I am ready to kill: The effects of religious victimization and social dominance orientation on terror support among Muslim immigrants living in Denmark.Google Scholar
Pape, R. A. (2005) Dying to win: The strategic logic of suicide terrorism. Random House.Google Scholar
Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., BBou Zeineddine, F., Kteily, N. & Levin, S. (2014) When domestic politics and international relations intermesh: Subordinated publics' factional support within layered power structures. Foreign Policy Analysis 10(2):127–48.Google Scholar
Pratto, F., Sidanius, J. & Levin, S. (2006) Social dominance theory and the dynamics of intergroup relations: Taking stock and looking forward. European Review of Social Psychology 17(1):271–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L. & Malle, B. F. (1994) Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67(4):741–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rai, T. S. & Fiske, A. P. (2011) Moral psychology is relationship regulation: Moral motives for unity, hierarchy, equality, and proportionality. Psychological Review 118(1):57–75. doi: 10.1037/a0021867.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sheehy-Skeffington, J. (2009) Social psychological motivations of suicide terrorism: A community level perspective. Online Proceedings of the 2009 Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Political Psychology, July 14–17. Dublin, Ireland. Available at: http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/ispp/ispp09/ Google Scholar
Sidanius, J., Levin, S., Obaidi, M., Pratto, F. & Thomsen, L. (2013) Why do they hate us so? In: Online Proceedings of the 2013 Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, July 8–11. Herzliya, Israel.Google Scholar
Thomsen, L. (2010) Seeing social relations. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. ProQuest (ISBN: 9781109644500).Google Scholar
Thomsen, L., Green, E. & Sidanius, J. (2008) We will hunt them down: How social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism fuel ethnic persecution of immigrants in fundamentally different ways. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 44:1455–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomsen, L., Green, E.G.T. & Sidanius, J. (in preparation) Religion Hi-jacked: SDO interacts with religious identification among Christians to predict willingness to persecute assimilating Muslims.Google Scholar
Travis, A. (2008) MI5 report challenges views on terrorism in Britain. The Guardian, August 20, 2008. (Online). Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/aug/20/uksecurity.terrorism1.Google Scholar