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Abstract
Drawing from the work of political theorists, theologians, anthropologists, journalists, philosophers, and contemporary psychologists studying Terror Management Theory (TMT), it becomes possible to see that the concepts of existentialism and ideology may be useful for modern thinkers attempting to understand a problem such as terrorism. Integrating work from these fields makes it possible to see that terrorism may be driven by an existential-terroristic feedback loop: a cycle in which people support or engage in terrorism to alleviate existential anxiety but ultimately find this anxiety exacerbated in the wake of the violence they create or sanction. The loop is closed when this exacerbated anxiety compels them to reaffirm their support of, or participation in, terrorist violence. If this model is valid, then effectively addressing the problem of terrorism requires joining existing U.S. policies with policies that address ideologies. Specifically, policies must aspire to a) mitigate existential anxiety, b) provide a compelling counter-narrative, c) address environmental factors conducive to radicalization, d) prevent the formation of radicalized groups, and e) deradicalize existing ideologues.
Notes
*TMT also identifies self-esteem as a construct that mitigates the existential anxiety precipitated by awareness of human mortality. A significant body of research exists on TMT and self-esteem, and though this article focuses exclusively on the relationship between cultural worldview and terrorism, there is likely value in exploring the role that self-esteem plays in this dynamic.
Mark Taylor, “End the University as We Know It,” New York Times, April 27, 2009, A23.
Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be, 2nd ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000): 42.
Ibid., 35.
Ibid., 50.
Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, trans. Ilse Lasch (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006), 99.
Ibid., 105.
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, n.d.), 468.
Tillich (see note 2 above), 76.
Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski, “Fear Of Death and Human Destructiveness,” Psychoanalytic Review 90, no. 4 (Aug. 2003).
Ibid., 459.
Jeff Greenberg et al., “Clarifying the Function of Mortality Salience-Induced Worldview Defense: Renewed Suppression or Reduced Accessibility of Death-Related Thoughts?” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 37, no. 1 (Jan. 2001): 71.
Solomon, Greenberg, and Pyszczynski (see note 9 above).
Ibid.
Ibid., 74.
Sander L. Koole, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski, “Introducing Science to the Psychology of the Soul: Experimental Existential Psychology,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 15, no. 5 (Oct. 2006): 212.
Ibid., 214.
Tillich (see note 2 above), 142.
Robert Pape, “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,” American Political Science Review 97, no. 3 (Aug. 2003): 1.
Clark McCauley, “Psychological Issues in Understanding Terrorism and the Response to Terrorism,” in The Psychology of Terrorism: Theoretical Understandings and Perspectives, Vol. III, ed. Christopher Stout (Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood Group, 2002).
Roy F. Baumeister and Kathleen D. Vohs, “The Pursuit of Meaningfulness in Life,” in Handbook of Positive Psychology, eds. C. R. Snyder and Shane J. Lopez (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).
Fred A. Mael and Blake E. Ashforth, “Identification in Work, War, Sports, and Religion: Contrasting the Benefits and Risks,” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 31, no. 2 (June 2001).
Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), 5.
Mael and Ashforth (see note 21 above).
Ibid.
Jeff Greenberg et al., “Evidence for Terror Management Theory II: The Effects of Mortality Salience on Reactions to Those Who Threaten or Bolster the Cultural Worldview,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58, no. 2 (Feb. 1990): 308.
Becker (see note 22 above), 203.
Jeffrey R. Seul, “‘Ours Is the Way of God’: Religion, Identity, and Intergroup Conflict,” Journal of Peace Research 36, no. 5 (Sep. 1999): 558.
McCauley (see note 19 above).
David Kilcullen, The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), xxvii.
Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001) quoted in Darcy M.E. Noricks, “The Root Causes of Terrorism,” in Social Science for Counterterrorism: Putting the Pieces Together, ed. Paul K. Davis and Kim Cragin (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2009), 38.
Ibid.
Itzhak Levav, Robert Kohn, and Miriam Billig, “The Protective Effect of Religiosity Under Terrorism,” Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes 71, no. 1 (Spring 2008).
Ibid., 56.
William James, “The Moral Equivalent of War,” in Memories and Studies (New York: Longmans, Green, 1911).
William James, “The Psychological Roots of War,” in The American Idea: The Best of the Atlantic Monthly, ed. Robert Vare (New York: Doubleday, 2007), 329.
John Stuart Mill, “The Contest in America,” Harper's New Monthly Magazine 24, no. 143 (April 1862): 683–684.
Becker (see note 22 above), 217.
Jane Mayer, “The Predator War,” The New Yorker, October 26, 2009.
Chris Hedges, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (New York: Anchor Books, 2005), 3.
Ibid., 45.
Mael and Ashforth (see note 21 above).
Ibid.
Ibid.
Koole, Greenberg, and Pyszczynski (see note 15 above).
Ibid., 212.
Mark J. Landau et al., “Deliver us from Evil: The Effects of Mortality Salience and Reminders of 9/11 on Support for President George W. Bush,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 30, no. 9 (Sep. 2004): 1142.
Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, trans. Martin Milligan (Marxists Internet Archive, 2000), 4.
Arendt (see note 7 above), 478.
Ibid., 475.
Tillich (see note 2 above), 98.
Ibid., 50.
Frankl (see note 5 above), 106.
Bernard Lewis, “The Roots of Muslim Rage,” in The American Idea: The Best of the Atlantic Monthly, ed. Robert Vare (New York: Doubleday, 2007), 112.
Ibid., 115.
Ibid., 114.
Kilcullen (see note 29 above), 8–9.
Anthony J. Marsella, “Reflections on International Terrorism: Issues, Concepts, and Directions,” in Understanding Terrorism: Psychosocial Roots, Consequences, and Interventions, eds. Fathali M. Moghaddam and Anthony J. Marsella (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2004), 32.
Robert H. Gass and John S. Seiter, Persuasion, Social Influence, and Compliance Gaining (Boston: Pearson Education, 2003), 146.
Ibid., 147.
McCauley (see note 19 above).
Mitchell D. Silber and Arvin Bhatt, Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat (New York: New York City Police Department, 2007), 9.
Holly A. McGregor et al., “Terror Management and Aggression: Evidence that Mortality Salience Motivates Aggression Against Worldview-Threatening Others,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74, no. 3 (March 1998).
Tom Pyszczynski et al., “Mortality Salience, Martyrdom, and Military Might: The Great Satan Versus the Axis of Evil,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 32, no. 4 (April 2006): 533.
Ibid., 530.
Tillich (see note 2 above), 51.
Marsella (see note 57 above), 13.
Ibid., 31.
Solomon, Greenberg, and Pyszczynski (see note 9 above), 462.
Ibid.
Arendt (see note 7 above), 471.
Ibid., 351.
Ibid., 346.
Ibid., 470–471.
Tillich (see note 2 above), 49.
Ibid., 49–50.
Sam Harris, The End of Reason: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005), 19.
Eva Jonas, Jeff Greenberg, and Dieter Frey, “Connecting Terror Management and Dissonance Theory: Evidence that Mortality Salience Increases the Preference for Supporting Information After Decisions,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29, no. 9 (Sep. 2003).
Ian McGregor, “Zeal Appeal: The Allure of Moral Extremes,” Basic and Applied Social Psychology 28, no. 4 (Dec. 2006): 343.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid., 347.
Richard Beck, “Defensive Versus Existential Religion: Is Religious Defensiveness Predictive of Worldview Defense?” Journal of Psychology & Theology 34, no. 2 (Summer 2006).
Ibid.
Ibid.
Eva Jonas and Peter Fischer, “Terror Management and Religion: Evidence That Intrinsic Religiousness Mitigates Worldview Defense Following Mortality Salience,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 91, no. 3 (Sep. 2006).
Ibid.
Ibid.
Immo Fritsche, Eva Jonas, and Thomas Fankhänel, “The Role of Control Motivation in Mortality Salience Effects on Ingroup Support and Defense,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95, no. 3 (Sep. 2008): 525.
Lori J. Nelson, David L. Moore, Jennifer Olivetti, and Tippony Scott, “General and Personal Mortality Salience and Nationalistic Bias,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 23, no. 8 (August 1997): 889.
Greenberg et al. (see note 25 above), 312.
Ibid., 317.
Ibid.
Silber and Bhatt (see note 61 above), 36.
Jeff Schimel et al., “Stereotypes and Terror Management: Evidence That Mortality Salience Enhances Stereotypic Thinking and Preferences,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77, no. 5 (Nov. 1999): 910.
Ibid., 922.
Ibid.
Michael Jacobson, “Terrorist Drop-outs: One Way of Promoting a Counter-Narrative,” Perspectives on Terrorism 3, no. 2 (Aug. 2009): 15.
Ibid., 14.
Marc Sageman, “A Strategy for Fighting International Islamist Terrorists,” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 618, no. 1 (July 2008): 230.
Ibid., 229.
Jacobson, “Terrorist Drop-outs” (see note 97 above), 13.
Fathali M. Moghaddam, “The Staircase to Terrorism: A Psychological Exploration,” American Psychologist 60, no. 2 (2005): 164.
Ibid., 162.
Ibid., 163.
Ibid., 164.
Andrew Nastios, “Fighting Terror With Aid,” under Weak Institutions and Poor Governance.
Gass and Seiter (see note 58 above), 164.
Marc Sageman, “Portrait of a Modern Terrorist Group,” New Scientist 197, no. 2641 (Feb. 2, 2008): 46–47.
Gass and Seiter (see note 58 above), 131.
Ibid., 132.
Kilcullen (see note 29 above), xv.
Tillich (see note 2 above), 13.