Research concerning the psychology of terrorism has focused primarily in two directions. First, psychology has examined the impact of terrorism on survivors and victims as well as the population under threat. Second, it has studied the psychology behind perpetrators of terrorism. In other words, psychologists have examined the question of what enables an individual or group to commit acts of large scale property destruction and/or mass murder that may even result in the terrorist's own death for political ends.

Perpetrators

Terrorists often are portrayed as the personification of evil, or as possessing some underlying measure of extreme psychopathology. Such a characterization may enable individuals to feel safer, for they may believe that if the targeted perpetrator is eliminated, the threat of terrorism will disappear. Unfortunately, this is not an accurate...