Applying Moral Foundations Theory to Identify Terrorist Group Motivations

Abstract

Previous research distinguishing terrorist groups has employed categorical schemes that are (1) ideologically broad and ambiguous (e.g., right‐wing versus left‐wing) or (2) focused on single‐issues (e.g., guns, abortion). Broad schemes often fail to clearly distinguish groups’ motivations, and single‐issue schemes provide no coherent theoretical structure for understanding terrorist behavior. To address these limitations, we applied the conceptual framework of moral foundations theory (MFT) to derive a content‐analytic scheme identifying universal instincts we term “moral motivations.” We then applied this scheme to classify descriptions found in the Profiles of Perpetrators of Terrorism in the United States, an open‐sourced dataset providing information on terrorist organizations that committed violence on U.S. soil. Analyses examined how terrorist‐group activities are associated with specific moral motivations in order to distinguish dominant motives among different groups. Results showed that extremist right‐wing, religious, and ethno‐nationalist/separatist ideologies were associated with the binding motivations of loyalty, authority, and purity. Extremist left‐wing and single‐issue ideologies were associated with the individualizing motivations of care and fairness. These findings are discussed regarding the value of using MFT’s motivations to distinguish terrorist groups and how describing their moral motivations might advance efforts to curtail their activities.

Empirical Perspectives on Religion and Violence

“…The binding motivations of loyalty, authority, and purity appear to underlie religious terrorist groups (Hahn, Tamborini, Novotny, Grall, and Klebig 2018). The PPT-US (Profiles of Perpetrators of Terrorism in the United States) dataset provides detailed information on all known terrorist organizations to have committed a terrorist attack in the United States from 1970-2016, including their philosophy statements (Miller and Smarick, 2012).…”

“…The PPT-US (Profiles of Perpetrators of Terrorism in the United States) dataset provides detailed information on all known terrorist organizations to have committed a terrorist attack in the United States from 1970-2016, including their philosophy statements (Miller and Smarick, 2012). Hahn et al (2018) coded the most salient moral foundations depicted in the philosophy statements of these terrorist organizations and found that the binding motivations of loyalty, authority, and purity are the most common among religious terrorist groups. Purification rituals of sacrifice can expel the guilty and unclean, maintaining the purity of the community (Jones, 2008).…”

“…The importance of authority can be seen through the centralized structure and dynamic leadership of these terrorist organizations (Whitehouse, 2002). However, these same binding motivations underlie secular right-wing and separatist movements (Hahn et al, 2018), suggesting that they are not exclusively, or even primarily, religious.…”

The Promises and Pitfalls of Inspirational Media: What do We Know, and Where do We Go from Here?

“…Although the bulk of research on inspirational media has examined narratives' ability to evoke a sense of meaningfulness and normatively positive outcomes in audiences, inspiration can also be used as a manipulation tactic. For instance, marketing scholars attempt to leverage inspirational processes for product persuasion (Barry & Gironda, 2018), extremist groups rely on eudaimonic entertainment cues to cover calls for violence (Bouko, Naderer, Rieger, Van Ostaeyen, & Voué, 2021;Frischlich, 2021), and terrorist organizations justify their atrocities with meaning-promising morality (Hahn, Tamborini, Novotny, Grall, & Klebig, 2019). As such, the communication field's idealizations of inspirational media as socially beneficial stands in stark contrast to the use of inspiration and related constructs in explaining outcomes that may be normatively deemed socially detrimental.…”

#Dark inspiration: Eudaimonic entertainment in extremist Instagram posts

“…This “dark” side of eudaimonic entertainment is also apparent in the context of extremist and terrorist propaganda itself. Content analytical work shows that, during its peak influence, the self-declared “Islamic state” relied heavily on utopic narratives to recruit its foreign fighters (Winter, 2018) and terrorists across the ideological spectrum frame their mission in moral terms (Hahn et al, 2019). Furthermore, radicalization research suggests that the search for significance and meaning in life are crucial factors in individual radicalization processes (Kruglanski, 2009; Kruglanski et al, 2013).…”