One of the new researches predicts “Leaders' Emotional
Cues May Predict Acts of Terror or Political Aggression”. Leaders often use rousing speeches to evoke
powerful emotions, and those emotions may predict when a group will commit an
act of violence or terrorism, according to new research published in the
journal Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression. Analysis of
speeches delivered by government, activist and terrorist leaders found that
leaders' expressions of anger, contempt and disgust spiked immediately before
their group committed an act of violence.
"When leaders express a combination of anger,
contempt and disgust in their speeches, it seems to be instrumental in inciting
a group to act violently," said David Matsumoto, professor of psychology
at San Francisco State University.
As part of a five-year project funded by the U.S.
Department of Defense's Minerva Initiative, Matsumoto and colleagues studied
the transcripts of speeches delivered by the leaders of ideologically motivated
groups over the past 100 years. The analysis included such speeches as Osama
bin Laden's remarks leading up to the bombings of embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania.
The researchers analyzed the pattern of emotions conveyed
when leaders spoke about their rival group and examined speeches given at three
points in time before a specific act of aggression. They compared the results
with the content of speeches delivered by leaders whose groups engaged in
nonviolent acts of resistance such as rallies and protests.
Among leaders of groups that committed aggressive acts,
there was a significant increase in expressions of anger, contempt and disgust
from 3 to 6 months prior to the group committing an act of violence. For
nonviolent groups, expressions of anger, contempt and disgust decreased from 3
to 6 months prior to the group staging an act of peaceful resistance.
Matsumoto says the findings suggest a leader's emotional
tone may cause the rest of the group to share those emotions, which then
motivates the group to take part in violent actions.
"For groups that committed acts of violence, there
seemed to be this saturation of anger, contempt and disgust. That combination
seems to be a recipe for hatred that leads to violence," Matsumoto said.
Anger, contempt and disgust may be particularly important
drivers of violent behavior because they are often expressed in response to
moral violations, says Matsumoto, and when an individual feels these emotions
about a person or group, they often feel that their opponent is unchangeable
and inherently bad.
"Understanding the preceding factors that lead to
terrorist attacks and violent events may help predict these incidents or
prevent them occurring in the first place," Matsumoto said. "Studying
the emotions expressed by leaders is just one piece of the puzzle but it could
be a helpful predictor of terrorist attacks."
This study was one of the first seven projects funded by
the U.S. Department of Defense Minerva Initiative. The Initiative was
established in 2008 to fund social science research on areas of strategic
importance to U.S. national security policy.
Psychtronics.com gives the only interesting topics of psychology and you need not to be a professional to understand the articles in the psychtronics. They are easy to understand to every one and it is mainly for the college students and Psychiatrists.
Like us in FB to get Updates: www.facebook.com/psychtronics
Post a Comment