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What makes a person want to become a terrorist? Who becomes involved in terrorism, and why? In what ways does participating in violent extremism change someone? And how can people become deradicalized? John Horgan - one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of terrorism - takes readers on a globe-spanning journey into the terrorist mindset. Drawing on groundbreaking personal interviews as well as decades of research from psychologists and others, he traces the pathways that lead people into violent extremism and explores what happens to them as their involvement deepens. Horgan provides an up-to-date, evidence-based understanding of the patterns, motives, and mentalities of violent extremists from the Islamic State and al-Shabaab to white supremacists and incels. He argues that there is not a straightforward psychological profile of a terrorist, in part because of the great variety of today’s extremists, who are able to attract a more diverse pool of recruits than ever before. But even though there is no one-size-fits-all profile, psychological study can provide crucial insight into why and how people become terrorists. "From one of the world's leading experts, Terrorist Minds offers an up-to-date, evidence-based understanding of the patterns, profiles, motives and mindsets of today's violent extremists from al Qaeda to the extreme right wing. The book is informed by scientific research findings from the best academic research available, presented in an accessible format. Its goal is to illuminate, educate and challenge the general reader and policy makers and practitioners about who becomes a terrorist, why, and ultimately what we can do about it. Drawing on over fifty years of psychological research on terrorism, John Horgan illustrates both the research data from studies of terrorists as well as the deeply personal journeys undertaken by terrorists into the world of violent extremism. Terrorist Minds will include never-before published interviews with the Pakistani Taliban, Somalia's al Shabaab, Al Qaeda, ISIS, America's 'homegrown' right-wing extremists, and most recently, members of the violent "Incel" community. In one of the final chapters, Horgan presents a detailed account of a series of meetings with a convicted jihadist recruiter operating within the United States. Horgan concludes with a new model of terrorist psychology that is the culmination of the author's twenty years of studying the topic"--
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