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What Makes a Terrorist

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Submitted By pmetscher
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The social aspect of terrorism goes very deep for the terrorist especially those in the middle-eastern countries. The social view addresses the in-group/out-group bias as well as the fundamental attribution error. The in-group/out-group bias refers to the tendency for individuals to identify themselves as a particular group, placing all others in opposing groups. In the case of terrorism, a trained terrorist may think they are good and righteous, but all others (including those that do not practice their cultural norms or religious expectations) are among the out-group. By defining themselves as an in -groups, it makes it easier for an individual to act out against those they consider a out-group member. The creations of in and out groups are fabricated at a young age.
In the case of countries known for frequent acts of terrorism, their society teaches their inhabitants to hate out-groups, defining them as targets of destruction. Taylor & Horgan (2006) describe this phenomenon as “the incremental process through which youngsters become committed insiders of counter-culture youth groups” (p. 581). To be more basic in explanation, societal pressure and norms create terrorists. The old adage, “it takes a village to raise a child,” is true when it comes to making a terrorist. The social attitude of that community becomes a part of who ever lives in that area and therefore, sets the way they think.

Another perspective is the view of Behaviorism. The Behavioral view believes that behaviors are classically conditioned through reinforcement, which comes through positive and negative reinforcement. There is also operant conditioning. Weiten (2011) states, “Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which voluntary responses come to be controlled by their consequences” (p. 196). One could argue that Military training operates under the basic premise of

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