Evolutionary Psychological Influences on the Contemporary Causes of Terrorist Events

In this chapter we integrate the concept of ultimate causation derived from evolutionary psychology (i.e., why have human behavioural tendencies evolved the way they did?) with the proximal situational perspective of causal mechanisms and goals (i.e. immediate causes of behaviour and events), with the view to better understand, predict and prevent terrorist behaviour and events. The developmental perspective, while important, is not central to our current analysis. Those working in crime science, and more especially situational crime prevention, have only recently begun to show an interest in terrorism, while to the best of our knowledge there appears to be little research linking situational theories, EP and crime or terrorist behaviour. It is our contention that EP has something useful to say about how we respond to and act on information in the immediate environment, and that a better appreciation of evolutionary influences on person-situation interactions might helpfully inform efforts to reduce the proximal causes of crime and terrorist behaviour or disrupt criminals'/terrorists' proximally-active, tactical goals.

The chapter is structured as follows. We begin by setting out some prevalent misconceptions about EP that we argue account for the lack of interest in the approach among terrorist researchers, and that need to be dispelled before we can proceed with our proposed analysis. Next, we set out the parameters of our analysis, and describe terrorism in a manner that is amenable to an evolutionary perspective. Given the difficulties in defining terrorism, we select the concept of tribalism as a significant exemplar of a terrorism-supporting mechanism and our focus for analysis. We move then to the main goal of this chapter: integrating the proposed causes of terrorist behaviour, from ultimate causes rooted in our evolutionary past to proximal causes and goals in the immediate environment. This analysis is conducted within the framework of the Conjunction of Terrorist Opportunity, a conceptual model that seeks to link a range of situational and offender-based, proximal causes of terrorist events. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of our exercise for research and prevention.