Psychology out of the Laboratory: The Challenge of Violent Extremism

The idea that people inevitably act in accordance with their self-interest on the basis of a calculation of costs and benefits does not constitute an adequate framework for understanding political acts of violence and self-sacrifice. Recent research suggests that a better understanding is needed of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American psychologist 2011-09, Vol.66 (6), p.507-519
Main Authors: Ginges, Jeremy, Atran, Scott, Sachdeva, Sonya, Medin, Douglas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aggression - psychology
Conflict
Extremism
Group Identity
Group Unity
Human
Humans
Identity
Interdisciplinary Approach
Laboratories
Moral aspects
Moral Values
Morality
Motivation
Political Attitudes
Politics
Psychology
Research Methodology
Research methods
Research Needs
Sacred
Sacrifice
Self
Self Concept
Self interest
Selfsacrifice
Social Values
Suicide
Terrorism
Terrorism - psychology
Values
Violence
Virtue
Warfare
World Problems
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Summary:The idea that people inevitably act in accordance with their self-interest on the basis of a calculation of costs and benefits does not constitute an adequate framework for understanding political acts of violence and self-sacrifice. Recent research suggests that a better understanding is needed of how sacred values and notions of self and group identity lead people to act in terms of principles rather than prospects when the two come into conflict. Perhaps the greatest challenge is to better understand how sacred causes and moral imperatives diffuse through a population and motivate some (usually small) segment of it to commit violent actions. The challenge to psychology is to adopt an interdisciplinary focus drawing on a range of research methods and to become bolder in its choices of study populations if it is to be relevant to real-world problems. (Contains 1 table, 1 figure and 1 footnote.)
ISSN:0003-066X
1935-990X
DOI:10.1037/a0024715