Social Psychology and Terrorism

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Social Psychology and Terrorism

• Prof. Milburn
• Psychology 230

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Ways to look at the events of September 11, 2001

• Attribution Theory
• Communication/Family Systems
• Sources of Violence

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Attribution Theory

• How do people explain other peoples behavior?
• Fritz Heiderpeople act like naïve
  psychologists
• Two different types of attributions of
  causality (causal explanations)
• Internal (e.g., personality characteristics)
• External (e.g., situational characteristics)

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Biases in Attributional Process

• Actor-Observor bias (Jones and Nisbett)
• Individuals are more likely to attribute others
  behavior to personality causes, i.e., make an
  internal attribution, and their own behavior to
  situational causes, e.g., an external
  attribution

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Actor/Observer Difference
Bob (Actor)
Steve
Joe (Observer)
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Actor/Observer Difference
Bob (Actor)
Steve
Joe (Observer)
Bob hits Steve. Why?
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Scenes from television news coverage 9/11-9/12

• Brian Jenkins, terrorism expert, quoted on
  television, 9/11/01
• It will days and weeks before we find out who
  did it and why they did it, if they needed a
  why.

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Mental Disorder explanation

• Be wary when people start calling other people
  crazy
• This obviates the need to look for situational or
  political causes of their behavior
• If someone is crazy, how do you have to deal with
  them?

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Osama bin Laden

• Boston Globe, 9/13/01
• Dan Byman, a specialist on terrorism and the
  director of research for the RAND Corp.s Middle
  East Center, said bin Laden brought an
  administrators touch to the fledgling movement.
• What stands out most about bin Laden is his
  managerial capabilitieshis long-term planning,
  Byman said. He managed to pull people together
  who would not even talk to each other a decade
  ago. (p. A10)

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Systems of Communication

• Paul Watzlevick et al, Pragmatics of Human
  Communication
• Punctuation
• Individuals will often fail to recognize that
  interactions in a relationship occur in the
  context of an on-going system, and will select
  small segments to use for causal explanations
  (i.e., punctuate)

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Family System
Wife nags
Wife nags
Wife nags
.
.
Husband withdraws
Husband withdraws
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Family System
Wife nags
Husband withdraws
Husband punctuates interaction by saying, I have
to withdraw, shes always nagging me.
13
Family System
Wife nags
Husband withdraws
Wife punctuates interaction by saying, I have to
nag, he withdraws all the time.
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International System
Israeli assassination
Israeli assassination
Israeli assassination
.
.
Palestinian suicide bomb
Palestinian suicide bomb
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International System
Israeli assassination
Palestinian suicide bomb
Palestinians punctuate by saying, We had to
respond to the Israeli assassination of one of
our leaders.
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International System
Israeli assassination
Palestinian suicide bomb
Israelis punctuate by saying, We had to respond
to this latest act of terrorism.
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International Struggle

• Actors present themselves as responding to
  situational influences
• E.g., Osama bin Laden (1999 PBS Frontline
  documentary, ABC reporter John Miller interview
• After World War II, the Americans grew more
  unfair and more oppressive towards people in
  general and Muslims in particular. ... The
  Americans started it and retaliation
  and punishment should be carried out following
  the principle of reciprocity, especially when
  women and children are involved. Through history,
  American has not been known to differentiate
  between the military and the civilians or between
  men and women or adults and children. Those who
  threw atomic bombs and used the weapons of mass
  destruction against Nagasaki and Hiroshima were
  the Americans. Can the bombs differentiate
  between military and women and infants and
  children? America has no religion that can deter
  her from exterminating whole peoples.

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Osama bin Laden--1999

• The American government is leading the country
  towards hell. ... We say to the Americans as
  people and to American mothers, if
  they cherish their lives and if they cherish
  their sons, they must elect an American patriotic
  government that caters to their interests
  not the interests of the Jews.
• If the present injustice continues with the wave
  of national consciousness, it will inevitably
  move the battle to American soil, just as Ramzi
  Yousef and others have done. This is my message
  to the American people. I urge them to find a
  serious administration that acts in their
  interest and does not attack people and violate
  their honor and pilfer their wealth.

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Sources of Violence

• Displacement of anger from childhood
• Milburn, Conrad, Sala, and Carberry (1995)

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Milburn, Conrad, Sala, Carberry (1995)

• Study 1 Questionnaire study of UMass/Boston
  undergraduates
• Study 2 Telephone survey of people living in
  Eastern Massachusetts
• RESULTS Same two-way interactions replicated

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Punishment by Therapy Interaction
Conservative
.6 - .4 - .2 - 0 - -.2
- -.4 - -.6 -
High Punishment
Low Punishment
Political Ideology
No Therapy Therapy
Liberal
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Punishment by Therapy Interaction
Conservative
.6 - .4 - .2 - 0 - -.2
- -.4 - -.6 -
High Punishment
Low Punishment
Political Ideology
No Therapy Therapy
Liberal
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Osama bin Ladens childhood

• One of 50 children
• Father had 10 wives
• Saudi Arabia
• Thieves have hands cut off
• One of few countries in the world that has legal
  death penalty

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Conclusion

• A terrible act of violence like this, resulting
  is such tragedy should not compel us to view the
  world as a simple place, with simple solutions to
  complex problems
• Social psychology provides some explanations that
  can help us to understand that events have
  causes, they are not inexplicable and hopefully
  can be prevented in the future

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Now

• I will distribute readings now
• Next week will begin with what was to be the
  lecture on this Tuesday
• You can touch base with your group, but the first
  official group meeting will be next week
  (Thursday)
• Everything this semester will be displaced a week
  (e.g., the paper will be due a week later, the
  exams will be a week lateralthough the final
  exam still during Finals Week).