• Question: Do you think there's a psychological explanation for terrorism, especially with recent events such as the Manchester attack?

    Asked by sciencelover4lyfe to Steve, Michelle, Jermaine, Jack, Gem on 16 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Steven Brown

      Steven Brown answered on 16 Jun 2017:

      Terrorism is something I know little of. I do know violence has been in constant decline for thousands of years and that such dramatic events in recent years paint a skewed picture of this. The world is generally a good, safe place. Bad things do happen, of course.

      Most of the world’s problems are due to inequality. I imagine this spills over to terrorism as well.

    • Photo: Jack barton

      Jack barton answered on 18 Jun 2017:

      I don’t know much about terrorism but there was an interesting study published recently exactly on this topic (nicely summarised here, https://digest.bps.org.uk/2017/06/06/on-psychological-tests-comparing-66-terrorists-with-controls-one-key-difference-stood-out/). I’m not quite sure how applicable this is to the recent attack in Manchester but it does suggest that altered moral reasoning plays a role in what leads someone to carry out a terrorist act.

    • Photo: Michelle Jamieson

      Michelle Jamieson answered on 18 Jun 2017:

      I know little on the topic, but it’s a newish area of psychology that is always evolving!

    • Photo: Jermaine Ravalier

      Jermaine Ravalier answered on 19 Jun 2017:

      After what happened in Finsbury Park last night this is a really good Q – and unfortunately not something I know the answer to. I hope it doesn’t need to become a more popular field of study in the next few years though, as if it does that means that terrorism is continuing to be a huge problem.

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