Justification of terrorism according to World Values Survey (2017–2020)

Abstract

In this article we present the factors (pull, push and personal) that allow people to justify terrorism. We build a model that allows us to predict on a global scale, which factors best discriminate between the people who justify – or do not justify – terrorism. Based on data from the seventh wave of the World Values Survey (2017–2020) we compare those who do not justify terrorism with those who justify terrorism (23.7% of those interviewed, N = 69578). The importance of attitudes about democracy turns out to be the variable that predicts cognitive radicalization best.

Keywords

• Justification of terrorism
• Personal factors
• Push factors
• Pull factors
• World Values Survey