While nothing can excuse their actions, maybe psychology can help us understand the mind of a terrorist.

雖然恐怖行為沒有藉口可推託，但心理學或許能解釋恐怖份子在想什麼。

Hello, everyone, I’m Julian and this is DNews.

大家好我是 Julian，你正收看 DNews。

Terrorists are defined as a non-state group that uses violence against non-combatants for political gain.

恐怖份子由非國家團體組成，為達政治目的對平民使用暴力。

Their goal is to instill fear, and they achieve it by targeting innocent people where they feel safe.

他們的目標是製造恐懼，針對自覺安全的平民進行攻擊。

This brutality is hard for us to comprehend, so some may reason that a terrorist must be mentally unstable in some way.

這種暴行令人費解，因此許多人推論恐怖份子多多少少都有些心理問題。

According to psychologist John Horgan, who has written multiple books on the subject of terrorism, psychologists have been trying for over 40 years to identify the personality disorder that defines a terrorist.: are they psychotic? Are they anti-social? Is there one defining characteristic that unites them?

心理學家 John Horgan 已經出版數本恐怖主義相關著作，他表示，心理學界已經花了 40 年研究恐怖份子的人格疾患，像是他們是否精神異常？是否有反社會人格？有沒有關鍵的共同人格特徵？

Unsatisfyingly, there is no one archetype that every terrorist neatly conforms to.

然而，恐怖份子並沒有完全共通的典型性格模式。

There are risk factors and common threads though: recruits are often motivated to join terrorist groups because they feel alienated or disenfranchised, or they think they're the victims of a social injustice.

但的確有特徵和脈絡可循，成員加入恐怖團體的動機往往是因為疏離感和被剝奪感，或自覺受到社會不公平對待。

They may be frustrated by other methods of political change, wanna take immediate action, and don’t have a problem with violence against the state.

他們也許對其他改革政治的方法感到失望，並渴望立即行動，且不反對使用暴力反抗國家。

Psychologist Steve Taylor from Leeds Beckett University in the UK writes that it’s often adolescent men who are drawn to this life, because they’re at a point when they are looking for a sense of belonging and purpose.

英國利茲貝克特大學心理學家 Steve Taylor 曾寫過，加入恐怖團體的多是青少年，因為他們正在尋求歸屬感與人生目標。

Once in the group, they develop an "us" vs "them" mentality that makes it easy to switch off empathy to the victims of their attacks.

一旦加入團體他們便產生「我群與他群」的心理，由此切斷對受害者的同情心。

To them, the deaths they cause are more akin to destroying an object than ending a life.

對恐怖份子而言，殺人就如同摧毀物品，而非終結性命。

Strangely though, sometimes they draw arbitrary lines.

但奇怪的是，有時他們的行為又無法預測。

Horgan interviewed a former Irish Republican Army bombing instructor who left the group after the IRA murdered a pregnant officer.

Horgan 曾訪談數人，包括前愛爾蘭共和軍 (IRA) 炸彈教練，他在 IRA 謀殺一名懷孕軍官後退出團體。

Other people Horgan spoke to became disillusioned when their group robbed a bank. To them, the killing was acceptable, but theft was not.

其他還有因團體搶銀行而感到幻滅的前恐怖份子。對他們而言，殺人可以；偷竊不行。

Sometimes though, recruits are just bored and looking for adventure, or they’re worried about not leaving a lasting legacy.

但有時候恐怖份子作亂，只是因為無聊想尋刺激，或是想名留青史。

People with little going for them in their former lives are more likely to support the actions of a group rather than form opinions as an individual and voice dissent.

過往無甚作為的人更傾向於支持團體行動，反而不會有個人意見或提出異議。

This groupthink can lead to further radicalization of all the members; wanting to support and look out for each other also becomes another motivation for killing.

這樣的團體思維可能導致全體成員更加激進；其他殺人動機還有成員間的相互支持與照應。

Dr. Clark R. McCauley, director for the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at Bryn Mawr College, points out, modern militaries use the same techniques by stripping soldiers of individuality and placing the goals of the group first.

布林茅爾學院，所羅門艾許族裔政治衝突中心主任 Clark R. McCauley 博士指出，現代軍隊也運用相同的技巧剝奪士兵的個人思維，讓他們以團隊目標為首要任務。

Terrorists who do disagree with the group will feel pressure to remain silent, because they fear the consequences of voicing dissent.

不認同團體的恐怖份子會因壓力而保持沈默，因為他們害怕提出異議的後果。

Horgan points out they don’t have the option to really leave either, as state governments will offer little sympathy for deserters.

Horgan 表示，他們也無法選擇退出，因為政府並不會同情前恐怖份子。

It’s tempting to boil down terrorists to one trait or other.

我們時常想用一個特徵來總結什麼是恐怖份子。

The so-called "Islamic State," or ISIS, is a group that’s stated goal is to create an Islamic state, and so a facile conclusion is their faith is to blame.

「伊斯蘭國」或 ISIS 團體，開宗明義就是要建立伊斯蘭教國家 ，所以簡單來說就是信仰造成他們的惡行，

But according to political scientist Dr. Max Abrahms, groups like that are quote, "ignorant people with respect to religion and they are generally the newest members to the religion."

但根據政治學者 Max Abrahms 博士所言，類似團體是由「對宗教一無所知的人組成，這些人通常是新進的信徒。」

Horgan agrees with this assessment, saying that young converts are more susceptible to recruiters because they lack a deeper religious knowledge that would help them reject extremist arguments.

Horgan 也同意這個說法，他認為新信徒較容易受到煽動，因為他們對宗教缺乏認識，更容易接受極端的論點。

But Horgan insists that even if a perfect model of a terrorist could be identified, it wouldn’t be very useful.

但 Horgan 強調，就算能找到完美符合恐怖份子的性格模型也沒什麼用。

After all, you can’t arrest people just because they have the potential to join violent extremists.

畢竟不能因為一個人有可能加入暴力激進團體就將他逮捕。

Instead, he says we should be focusing on understanding the paths that lead them there and giving them options to get out.

Horgan 認為更需要關注的是瞭解恐怖份子走上歧途的原因，並提供他們出路。

Plenty of people who join up with radicals eventually become disenchanted.

許多加入激進團體的人最後突然醒悟。

They realize that the group doesn’t really serve their ideals, or isn’t the utopian society the recruiters made it out to be.

他們發現團體追求的不是他們的理想，或與團員描繪的理想社會相去甚遠。

Of course, Horgan and the people who study terrorists have a tough job cut out for them.

當然，Horgan 和其他恐怖主義學者的研究工作十分困難。

Terrorist groups rely on fear tactics because they are tiny minorities, and the people who leave and are willing to talk to researchers are an even smaller subset of that.

恐怖團體仰賴恐怖策略是因為他們是群體中的少數，而退團後願意接受研究訪談的人更是人數稀少。

It’s a pressing problem that’s tough to study, so hypotheses abound but there’s very little in the way of actual data. Once again, more research is needed.

恐怖問題十分迫切卻難以研究，假說多不勝數，但真正的研究資料極其短缺，於是我們還需要更多研究。

Even though there are a lot of paths people take to join a group like ISIS, for some reason an unusually high number come from one town in Belgium. Lisette explains why over on Seeker Daily.

雖然類似 ISIS 等團體的成員來自各地，但不知原因為何，非常多人來自比利時的小鎮，請看 Lisette 在Seeker Daily 的介紹。

Among all European nations, Belgium is responsible for the highest number of recruits per capita to have left to fight in Syria and Iraq, so there is some way to the argument that Belgium is a terrorist hotbed.

在所有歐洲國家中，比利時是前往敘利亞和伊拉克作戰的人均新兵人數最多的國家，因此比利時是恐怖主義溫床的論點有一定的道理。

Whether you’ve been directly affected by terrorism or not, we encourage you to find a way to help.

無論你是否受到恐怖主義的危害，我們鼓勵你伸出援手。

Doing good anonymously is great, but spread the word and try to get others involved, too. Let’s try and make the world a better place, and we'll see you next time on DNews.

為善不欲人知很好，但提倡公益呼籲他人也很重要，讓我們一起改變世界，下次 DNews 再見。