Why People Become Terrorists

An interesting study by an Israeli professor at UCSD [where I almost went to graduate school in Poli Sci]

Throughout history, people willing to join groups far outside the mainstream, and to take their own lives and the lives of others in service of those groups, have been thought of as irrational, motivated only by extreme hate or abstract ideas of rewards in the afterlife.

Berman, in a series of papers dating to the late 1990s, has challenged that assumption. He instead offers a theory stating these people may be motivated as much by economic self-interest as they are by the holy texts.

He further argues that the success of groups such as Hamas and al-Qaeda are more due to the advantages of their organizational structures than their theology.

"I'm not saying theology is not important," said the 45-year-old professor in his small, sparsely appointed office in the UCSD economics building.

"(But) if you put theology aside for a moment, and just apply the usual tools of empirical economics, quantifying people's choices, and analyzing them statistically, we can understand a lot about these communities that we can't understand otherwise."

Comments

[Jay]

It seems to be the same reason why superpowers become unilateral pre-emptive warmongers. Funny, that.