Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005, Page 20
Terrorists Are Made, Not Born: Creating Terrorists Using
Social Psychological Conditioning
Anthony Stahelski, Ph.D.
Central Washington University
Abstract
Sociologists and social psychologists have discovered that terrorist groups
use cult-like conditioning techniques to convert normal individuals into
remorseless killers. The limited global counterterrorism resources should
focus on eradicating the terrorist group training camps where the
conditioning takes place, rather than on trying to find terrorists after they
have already been conditioned.
Psychologists have thus far been unable to verify the existence of an individual-level
universal terrorist profile. This disappointing finding makes the search for terrorists who
appear and act normally in a larger population of non-terrorists much more difficult.
However, sociologists and social psychologists have discovered that terrorist groups use
cult-like conditioning techniques to convert normal individuals into remorseless killers. The
premise of this article is that the limited global counterterrorism resources should focus on
eradicating the terrorist group training camps where the conditioning takes place, rather
than on trying to find terrorists after they have already been conditioned. Five phases of
conditioning are described: depluralization, self-deindividuation, other-deindividuation,
dehumanization, and demonization. All conditioning phases are supported by powerful group
dynamics that reinforce the effectiveness of the conditioning. It appears that most terrorist
groups use all or most of the social psychological conditioning and support processes
described here. Since the cult-conditioned products of these processes are currently the
most dangerous individuals on the planet, the article concludes with several
recommendations for disrupting and possibly eliminating the groups and the training
facilities, in order to stop the production of terrorist operators.
Terrorism researchers have generally concluded that most terrorists are not initially
psychopaths,1 that most terrorists are not obviously or consistently mentally ill,2,3 and that
there is as of yet no identified universal terrorist personality pattern.4
These findings are unfortunate. Counterterrorism efforts would be enhanced if likely
terrorist candidates could be preemptively identified on a precise individual basis.
However, less universal efforts at individual terrorist characteristic identification have been
somewhat more successful. In the 1970s, German and Italian researchers had access to
captured members of and government documents about the Red Army Faction and the Red
Brigades. The researchers identified some family background commonalities: Many
terrorists came from families where the father was absent or, even when the father was
present, the children were estranged from the father.5,6 More recent observations of modern
terrorist groups indicate that some terrorists come from ―broken‖ homes, where the father
is absent, estranged, or economically or politically impotent.7
Additionally, some terrorist group joiners are individuals who have had difficulty forming
consistent group identities outside the home, such as school or the workplace.8

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005, Page 21
This partial background profile is certainly not universal. For example, many of the 9/11
hijackers were college-educated individuals who came from professional two-parent middle-
class homes. Nonetheless, it appears that terrorist group joiners from dysfunctional family
backgrounds are particularly susceptible to the seductive messages of charismatic leaders,
who offer them their first positively meaningful group experience. The leader becomes the
welcoming father figure, and the leader‘s group provides a close-knit family atmosphere.
Many joiners are individuals desperate to belong to a ―family‖ group, presumably because
their actual family groups did not fulfill their emotional affiliation needs.9
These unfulfilled needs make some individuals especially vulnerable to cult conditioning.
Terrorism researchers have compared terrorist groups to cults, and they have concluded
that the cult model is applicable to terrorist groups.10 Most cults center on a charismatic
leader. Charismatic leaders have many of the following characteristics: physical presence,
intelligence, experience, education and expertise, the ability to verbally and clearly
articulate the vision and the mission, and, most important, a strong emotional appeal. Most
joiners of cults respond to the leader‘s message first at an emotional level, then later at the
physical and intellectual levels. Joiners report that they have finally found someone who has
the answers to life‘s perplexing questions and who is therefore worthy of their total
commitment.11
In exchange for providing joiners with meaningful existences and for fulfilling their affiliative
emotional needs, the leader requests and receives unquestioning obedience from the
joiners. Long-term members of the group support the leader‘s obedience pressure by
applying conformity pressure on new joiners in order to forestall any deviation from the
group‘s mission or values. The joiners‘ initial susceptibility to this intense obedience and
conformity pressure makes them extremely vulnerable to the five-phase social psychological
conditioning process used in violent cults, which is summarized in Figure 1.
Figure 1: The Five Phases of Social Psychological Conditioning
Phase 1—Depluralization: stripping away all other group member identities
Phase 2—Self-deindividuation: stripping away each member‘s personal identity
Phase 3—Other-deindividuation: stripping away the personal identities of enemies
Phase 4—Dehumanization: identifying enemies as subhuman or nonhuman
Phase 5—Demonization: identifying enemies as evil
In essence, this process first eliminates a joiner‘s old social and personal identities
(depluralization and self-deindividuation) and then, in the case of extremist hate groups and
terrorist groups, reconditions joiners to hate and sometimes kill noncombatants upon
demand (other deindividuation, dehumanization, and demonization).
Numerous studies have demonstrated that, for most people, meaningful group affiliations
are important for psychological health.12 In stable, normal (non-crisis) societies, most
individuals are pluralized—that is, they fulfill their affiliative needs by belonging to a variety
of groups. None of these affiliations, with the possible exception of the family group, is
absolutely essential to an individual‘s self-concept.13
All cults, including terrorist groups, wish to change this normal pluralized state by
depluralizing potential joiners. Cults are frequently located in isolated environments. If
joiners agree to live in these isolated environments, it becomes easier for them to give up