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What Motivates Participation in Violent Political Action
Author(s) -
Ginges Jeremy,
Atran Scott
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04543.x
Subject(s) - collective action , action (physics) , politics , context (archaeology) , incentive , social psychology , positive economics , political violence , empirical evidence , psychology , political science , criminology , economics , epistemology , microeconomics , law , paleontology , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , biology
In standard models of decision making, participation in violent political action is understood as the product of instrumentally rational reasoning. According to this line of thinking, instrumentally rational individuals will participate in violent political action only if there are selective incentives that are limited to participants. We argue in favor of an alternate model of political violence where participants are motivated by moral commitments to collective sacred values. Correlative and experimental empirical evidence in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict strongly supports this alternate view.