Citation

Smith AG. Stud. Conflict Terrorism 2004; 27(5): 409-437.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10576100490483679

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study explored the dynamics of terrorism through a content analysis of terrorist and nonterrorist groups' documents. Thirteen terrorist groups were matched with nonterrorist controls, and their documents were coded for the values they attributed to their opponents and their own group. Relative to controls, terrorist groups attributed higher dominance values to their opponents and higher dominance, morality, and culture values to themselves in the full sample and in a predictive sample of documents issued before terrorism. These findings indicate that the values groups express in their documents--and particularly the values they attribute to themselves--may predict whether they will engage in terrorism.