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Deadly Premonition: Does Terrorist-Leader Psychology Influence Violence Lethality?
Title
Deadly Premonition: Does Terrorist-Leader Psychology Influence Violence Lethality?.
Creator
Besaw, Clayton, Schafer, Mark, Jacques, Peter, Mousseau, Michael, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
This thesis seeks to address a theoretical and empirical gap within terrorism studies, and more specially the study of terrorist-group lethality. This research updates a model of terrorist-group lethality by including terrorist-leader psychology as an individual-level variable in predicting terrorist-group lethality. Terrorist-leader statements were analyzed by using two novel coding schemes called Operational Code and Leadership Trait Analysis to create quantified measurements of leader...
Show moreThis thesis seeks to address a theoretical and empirical gap within terrorism studies, and more specially the study of terrorist-group lethality. This research updates a model of terrorist-group lethality by including terrorist-leader psychology as an individual-level variable in predicting terrorist-group lethality. Terrorist-leader statements were analyzed by using two novel coding schemes called Operational Code and Leadership Trait Analysis to create quantified measurements of leader cognitive beliefs and personality traits. The empirical portion of this study utilizes pooled cross-sectional time-series data within the framework of fixed effects and multi-level estimation models. The results find that terrorist-leader psychology, and more specifically Instrumental (Strategic) Beliefs and Distrust, are significant predictors of subsequent group-lethality.
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Date Issued
2014
Identifier
CFE0005132, ucf:50679
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005132
Altruistic Punishment Theory and Inter-Group Violence
Title
Altruistic Punishment Theory and Inter-Group Violence.
Creator
Besaw, Clayton, Tezcur, Gunes Murat, Dolan, Thomas, Kang, Kyungkook, Smirnov, Oleg, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
This dissertation explores the role of altruistic punishment, the act of punishing outsiders perceivedto harm members of one's group at a personal cost, in explaining individual motivations toparticipate in inter-group violence. It first develops a social theory of this type punishment. Thistheory argues that an egalitarian social logic may be key to understanding motivations of parochialaltruism, and that one's social environment may influence thresholds of anger needed to inducepunishment...
Show moreThis dissertation explores the role of altruistic punishment, the act of punishing outsiders perceivedto harm members of one's group at a personal cost, in explaining individual motivations toparticipate in inter-group violence. It first develops a social theory of this type punishment. Thistheory argues that an egalitarian social logic may be key to understanding motivations of parochialaltruism, and that one's social environment may influence thresholds of anger needed to inducepunishment behavior. Empirically, it conducts two survey-experimental studies. The first experimentutilizes subject partisan identity in the context of American politics and hypothetical acts ofviolence to study altruistic punishment behaviors among two different populations in the US. Thesecond experiment utilizes a comparative sample of American, German, and Kurdish participantsto assess whether priming for anger tied to acts of political violence by outsiders against theirrespective in-group increases support for a hypothetical in-group (")punisher(") of these outsiders.The results of these studies offer two key findings: (1) anger induced costly punishment of outgroupperpetrators may be conditional on egalitarian attitudes; (2) this relationship is contextualand varies across population. The findings cautiously suggest two conclusions. First, there may beevolutionary and neurological mechanisms that promote participation in inter-group conflict andthat superficial characteristics such as ethnicity, religion, and ideology may work in tandem withbiological factors. Second, it suggests that social and political environments may be useful formodulating, or exacerbating, the role of anger in the decision to participate in inter-group conflictactivities.
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Date Issued
2018
Identifier
CFE0007156, ucf:52307
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007156