How Could Someone Become a Terrorist?
Lessons from the Brain
by Shane Satterley
When an individual turns to the extreme act of violence of a terrorist attack it appears bewildering as to how one could end up taking such an anti-social and violent action. Adding to the bewilderment is often the individual will take his own life as well. Many explanations have been put forward as to why individuals turn to violent extremism; perhaps they faced discrimination, perhaps they were socially excluded, or perhaps it is foreign troops on holy lands. These no doubt these play a role but often the ideology, the main reason for religious extremism and violent action is undermined. However, there are also precursors to adopting such extreme ideological beliefs at the level of the brain which are instructive.
We now have many examples of those that have radicalised and committed a terrorist act of having experienced some form of trauma or personal crisis. The death of a loved one is a predominant example, but others include divorce and drug or alcohol addiction. The question that arises is, why do some individuals who experience something traumatic find terrorist ideologies compelling and subsequently take violent action?
The amygdala is a small area at the base of the brain involved with threat perception, emotions, and importantly dealing with uncertainty and anxiety. When one experiences a traumatic event, how one reacts can be heavily determined by the amygdala response. A feeling of threat, uncertainty, death anxiety and intolerance of ambiguity have been associated with radicalised individuals and challenges to the political/religious beliefs of individuals have also been shown to be linked to an amygdala response.
A way the brain responds to these stresses is that the hypothalamus/pituitary gland produce testosterone which binds to the amygdala and changes our threshold for stress. Testosterone lowers stress and anxiety, thus it also reduces our threshold for anxiety. The amygdala’s search for testosterone appears to be an initial first step, a coping mechanism for dealing with trauma or something perceived as traumatic. What we know about elevating testosterone in human males (and females) is that this will promote more novelty seeking, more action, and of course more seeking of a mate (all things a terrorist group can offer).
What an ideology (often religious) can offer an individual is a calming of feelings of (death) anxiety, uncertainty, and ambiguity by providing an all-encompassing story as to why the individual feels the way they do and a path out of these uncomfortable emotional states. But what feels better is acting as this has a direct biological effect of lowering stress and anxiety.
Competition and/or competitive environments also increase testosterone, therefore when an individual is told that they have now entered a cosmic battle between good and evil we can see how these factors conspire to give one a boost of testosterone for which their amygdala has been yearning.
There is more direct evidence that terrorists are actively trying to boost testosterone. There are now countless examples of known radicalised individuals, who have gone on to use terrorist violence, becoming regulars at the gym before their attacks. It is possible that there is narcissism involved in this endeavour or perhaps more likely some identity issues, but as we have seen, taking action, just moving (but particularly vigorous exercise), produces the testosterone needed for those that have experienced trauma.
Testosterone also increases the release of dopamine, which of course makes us feel better. For some people a greater genetic availability of dopamine is associated with a stronger propensity towards unfounded beliefs. This led the authors of this study to suggest that dopamine might be critically involved in how an individual interprets the connection between the self and the world. What makes this issue harder to solve is that, as mentioned, if one’s beliefs are challenged, this elicits a further amygdala response, similar to the way one might respond to a physical threat, at the level of the brain.
Vigorous exercise after trauma or a personal crisis, may have in fact stopped the radicalising process for some individuals by promoting psychological well-being. But for others, where the ideological connection was strong, and the dopamine response was significant, this led them down a path of violent extremism.
What can we do with this information to prevent individuals radicalising and turning to violent extremism? From what we can see, counselling must be near the top of the list. But specifically, death and trauma counselling but in a secular context. This is hugely challenging, for example, there are not compelling secular narratives as to why your mother or father just died, compared with religious prescriptions.
The goal for those charged with countering violent extremism is to find ways to support those who have experienced trauma but not by placing the individual in a passive state, rather they need to feel empowered and taking significant (non-violent) action to deal with their perceived stress.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SHANE SATTERLEY
Shane is a graduate of Macquarie and Griffith University who is interested in terrorism, international security and humanitarian related issues.
Shane has a Bachelor of Arts in Security, Terrorism, and Counter Terrorism studies and Masters of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism as well as a Graduate Diploma in Criminological Research Studies.
Shane is currently pursuing a PhD at Griffith University looking at global counter-radicalisation and deradicalisation policies.
