What can organizational psychology tell us about the terrorism landscape?

Using Organizational Psychology Can Contribute to a Deeper Understanding of the Evolving Terrorism Landscape

So What?

Organizational membership has changed significantly in recent decades. Take employment: 60 years ago, employees would take a job at one company and stay there for decades. This is not the case anymore, and extremist groups have seen similar changes in behavior patterns. To develop more effective counterterrorism responses, we need new models that more accurately reflect the shifting organizational and social dynamics of today’s terrorist groups.

Project Summary

This project will apply industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology to the emerging terrorism landscape, aiming to understand how people are drawn to and operate within terrorist groups in the U.S.

Purpose/Objectives

This project seeks to build a framework for understanding the nature of membership in the terrorism space. It will outline social and leadership structures in different organizations, explore how these organizations interact with each other, and identify indictors for when a terrorist group will transition to violence.

Method

This project will use a range of methods, including systematic reviews of existing academic literature, interviews with subject matter experts and study of court cases, news reports, and other archival material involving terrorism.

Outputs and Impact

• Peer-reviewed academic publications
• Conference presentations.
• Briefings to interested members of the HSE

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	Samuel Hunter, Ph.D. University of Nebraska at Omaha Professor Department of Psychology Head of Strategic Operations at NCITE Expertise: Organizational psychology, innovation, and malevolent creativity
	Gina Ligon, Ph.D. University of Nebraska at Omaha Director of NCITE Professor Expertise: Extremist organizations and leadership