International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 1, No. 1, 2010 49
A Psychosocial Analysis of the Terrorist Group As a Cult
Álvaro Rodríguez-Carballeira, Ph.D.,1 Javier Martín-Peña,1 Carmen Almendros, Ph.D.,2
Jordi Escartín, Ph.D.,1 Clara Porrúa,1 and Massimo Bertacco1
1 University of Barcelona 2 Autonomous University of Madrid
Abstract
This article aims to explore the internal
functioning of terrorist groups in terms of
dynamics that are typical of cults. Using a social
psychology perspective, we describe the main
features that define both types of groups and
analyse the interaction processes taking place
within them. We focus first on the interaction
between the three fundamental elements, namely
individual, group, and social environments.
Particular attention is paid to those factors that
link people to both cultic and terrorist groups.
Next, we look at those strategies of
psychological abuse that certain cults use in
order to first attract and then subjugate
ordinary people. Interestingly, these strategies
are thought to combine social influence and
social persuasion mechanisms with other forms
of control and coercive manipulation. Lastly, we
consider the way these strategies might be
extended to terrorist groups by analyzing the
corresponding differences and similarities
between these two kinds of groups.
Introduction
Violence is one of the classic issues studied by
the different social sciences. However, within
the term violence, the field of terrorism has
taken on social and also scientific importance
only in the past few decades, being able to be
defined as a specific form of collective violence
of a political nature, following the classification
proposed by the World Health Organization
(Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi and Lozano,
2002). If violence is in itself a phenomenon of
unquestionable social importance, the form of
violence that is aimed at the whole community
becomes even more paramount, if possible. And
if, moreover, it is carried out in the form of a
suicide attack, as we have seen particularly on
the part of Al Qaeda, this great social
importance is compounded by the heightened
level of internal alertness with which the general
public have to live, it being perceived as one of
the principal social problems in society today.
Suicide terrorist attacks have emphasised the
parallels existing between the dynamics of
terrorist groups and those of cults. In fact, some
of these cults have also carried out suicidal
activities and on a few occasions terrorist
activities. This is the case of the group People’s
Temple, led by the reverend Jim Jones, who
guided almost a thousand of his followers to
“collective suicide” (276 were children and
teenagers) on his farm in the Guyanese
rainforest in November 1978. Hours before
inducing and conducting this collective
slaughter, a group of his guards had attacked the
US senator Leo Ryan and a group of family
members of the disciples, along with journalists
who had accompanied Ryan on his visit to the
headquarters of the cult to check on the
condition of the disciples. Just as they were
about to get on the plane to fly home, almost all
of them were murdered. The cult known as The
Supreme Truth, led by Shoko Asahara, also
carried out an attack with sarin gas on the Tokyo
underground in 1995. Eleven people were killed
and more than 5,500 people had to be
hospitalised. Two other “collective suicides”
that should also be remembered were those
carried out by the cult of the Order of the Solar
Temple in the mid-nineteen-nineties in places in
Switzerland, France, and Canada during which
74 people were killed, and by the cult Heaven’s
Gate in 1997 in San Diego (USA), which was
responsible for 39 deaths.
These events demonstrate how a deadly
potential may lie within cults, although when
this potential is somehow carried out, it usually
results in a single action, even though this is in
many cases massive in nature. These groups do
not, therefore, in general, plan to carry out
continued terrorist attacks. If this were the case,
A Psychosocial Analysis of the Terrorist Group As a Cult
Álvaro Rodríguez-Carballeira, Ph.D.,1 Javier Martín-Peña,1 Carmen Almendros, Ph.D.,2
Jordi Escartín, Ph.D.,1 Clara Porrúa,1 and Massimo Bertacco1
1 University of Barcelona 2 Autonomous University of Madrid
Abstract
This article aims to explore the internal
functioning of terrorist groups in terms of
dynamics that are typical of cults. Using a social
psychology perspective, we describe the main
features that define both types of groups and
analyse the interaction processes taking place
within them. We focus first on the interaction
between the three fundamental elements, namely
individual, group, and social environments.
Particular attention is paid to those factors that
link people to both cultic and terrorist groups.
Next, we look at those strategies of
psychological abuse that certain cults use in
order to first attract and then subjugate
ordinary people. Interestingly, these strategies
are thought to combine social influence and
social persuasion mechanisms with other forms
of control and coercive manipulation. Lastly, we
consider the way these strategies might be
extended to terrorist groups by analyzing the
corresponding differences and similarities
between these two kinds of groups.
Introduction
Violence is one of the classic issues studied by
the different social sciences. However, within
the term violence, the field of terrorism has
taken on social and also scientific importance
only in the past few decades, being able to be
defined as a specific form of collective violence
of a political nature, following the classification
proposed by the World Health Organization
(Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy, Zwi and Lozano,
2002). If violence is in itself a phenomenon of
unquestionable social importance, the form of
violence that is aimed at the whole community
becomes even more paramount, if possible. And
if, moreover, it is carried out in the form of a
suicide attack, as we have seen particularly on
the part of Al Qaeda, this great social
importance is compounded by the heightened
level of internal alertness with which the general
public have to live, it being perceived as one of
the principal social problems in society today.
Suicide terrorist attacks have emphasised the
parallels existing between the dynamics of
terrorist groups and those of cults. In fact, some
of these cults have also carried out suicidal
activities and on a few occasions terrorist
activities. This is the case of the group People’s
Temple, led by the reverend Jim Jones, who
guided almost a thousand of his followers to
“collective suicide” (276 were children and
teenagers) on his farm in the Guyanese
rainforest in November 1978. Hours before
inducing and conducting this collective
slaughter, a group of his guards had attacked the
US senator Leo Ryan and a group of family
members of the disciples, along with journalists
who had accompanied Ryan on his visit to the
headquarters of the cult to check on the
condition of the disciples. Just as they were
about to get on the plane to fly home, almost all
of them were murdered. The cult known as The
Supreme Truth, led by Shoko Asahara, also
carried out an attack with sarin gas on the Tokyo
underground in 1995. Eleven people were killed
and more than 5,500 people had to be
hospitalised. Two other “collective suicides”
that should also be remembered were those
carried out by the cult of the Order of the Solar
Temple in the mid-nineteen-nineties in places in
Switzerland, France, and Canada during which
74 people were killed, and by the cult Heaven’s
Gate in 1997 in San Diego (USA), which was
responsible for 39 deaths.
These events demonstrate how a deadly
potential may lie within cults, although when
this potential is somehow carried out, it usually
results in a single action, even though this is in
many cases massive in nature. These groups do
not, therefore, in general, plan to carry out
continued terrorist attacks. If this were the case,
