Abstract
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">This paper presents a new approach for the study of terrorist behaviour and argues that a framework based on Prospect Theory can provide novel, useful insights into the understanding of the terrorist mind-set. Such a framework allows different pathways to become a terrorist and although individual decisions are studied, the model also takes into account environmental factors. By changing these environmental factors and/or framing the choice differently, PT provides insights as to how the terrorist group and/or a charismatic leader can influence the individual’s whether or not to turn to terrorism. </span></p>
Highlights
The events of 9/11, the bombings in Madrid and London and more recently, the attacks in Paris, Nice, Brussels, Berlin and Quebec make it painfully clear that terrorism is no longer a remote event for the Western world
If there is one aspect of consensus in the literature on terrorist behaviour this is the observation that there are as many processes to turn to terrorism as there are terrorists
Since terrorism is a risky business, we believe that the Prospect Theory model of Kahneman and Tversky is very suitable as a framework
Summary
The events of 9/11, the bombings in Madrid and London and more recently, the attacks in Paris, Nice, Brussels, Berlin and Quebec make it painfully clear that terrorism is no longer a remote event for the Western world. A lot of people supporting radical ideas never turn to terrorism and the recent wave of Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq exemplify a group of terrorists not really driven by a radical belief in a specific ideology but they are rather motivated by the opportunity to escape their meaningless life (Coolsaet, 2016a). In this paper it is suggested that Kahneman & Tversky’s Prospect Theory (1979, 1992) can provide such a unifying framework. Before this theory is discussed more in detail, the section will give a short overview of the literature on terrorist behavior. Prospect theory will be discussed and some examples will be given as to how this framework can champion most seminal theories of terrorism. The last section will conclude and will suggest some future research topics
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