The DOI matches its Crossref record; 10 of the 10 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Terrorism—A (self) love story: Redirecting the significance quest can end violence.
Abstract
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's concepts of self-love (amour propre) and love of self (amour de soi même) are applied to the psychology of terrorism. Self-love is concern with one's image in the eyes of respected others, members of one's group. It denotes one's feeling of personal significance, the sense that one's life has meaning in accordance with the values of one's society. Love of self, in contrast, is individualistic concern with self-preservation, comfort, safety, and the survival of self and loved ones. We suggest that self-love defines a motivational force that when awakened arouses the goal of a significance quest. When a group perceives itself in conflict with dangerous detractors, its ideology may prescribe violence and terrorism against the enemy as a means of significance gain that gratifies self-love concerns. This may involve sacrificing one's self-preservation goals, encapsulated in Rousseau's concept of love of self. The foregoing notions afford the integration of diverse quantitative and qualitative findings on individuals' road to terrorism and back. Understanding the significance quest and the conditions of its constructive fulfillment may be crucial to reversing the current tide of global terrorism.
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Cited by
Kruglanski, A. W., Gelfand, M. J., Bélanger, J. J., Sheveland, A., Hetiarachchi, M., & Gunaratna, R. (2014) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/pops.12163 · Cited by 868
Self-citationTerrorism, radicalization and de-radicalization
Doosje, B., Moghaddam, F. M., Kruglanski, A. W., de Wolf, A., Mann, L., & Feddes, A. R. (2016) · Current Opinion in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2016.06.008 · Cited by 477
Self-citationWebber, D., Babush, M., Schori-Eyal, N., Vazeou-Nieuwenhuis, A., Hettiarachchi, M., Bélanger, J. J., Moyano, M., Trujillo, H. M., Gunaratna, R., Kruglanski, A. W., et al. (2018) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/pspi0000111 · Cited by 266
Self-citationQuest for Significance and Violent Extremism: The Case of Domestic Radicalization
Jasko, K., LaFree, G., & Kruglanski, A. (2017) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/pops.12376 · Cited by 258
Self-citationFischer-Preßler, D., Schwemmer, C., & Fischbach, K. (2019) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2019.05.012 · Cited by 133
Metadata
- Authors
- Kruglanski, A. W., Bélanger, J. J., Gelfand, M., Gunaratna, R., Hettiarachchi, M., Reinares, F., Orehek, E., Sasota, J., & Sharvit, K.
- Venue
- American Psychologist
- Published
- 2013
- Volume
- 68
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 559-575
- ISSN
- 0003-066X (ISSN-L)
- 1935-990X
- OpenAlex
- W2023504382
- Cited by
- 233
- References
- 10
- FWCI
- 29.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Kruglanski, A. W., Bélanger, J. J., Gelfand, M., Gunaratna, R., Hettiarachchi, M., Reinares, F., Orehek, E., Sasota, J., & Sharvit, K. (2013). Terrorism—A (self) love story: Redirecting the significance quest can end violence. American Psychologist. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032615
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