U.S. Muslims with positive opinions about ISIS and suicide bombing are more likely to experience isolation, social rejection, and depression, according to a recent National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) study.
The project began in 2012, and the researchers have since conducted seven waves of surveys.
“There is still much unknown about the emerging patterns linking negative psychological states with radical opinions – why alienation/disconnection is related to depression/distress or whether additional measures of depression would produce stronger correlations with political opinions,” Clark McCauley, professor emeritus of psychology at Bryn Mawr College and co-author of the study, said. “But what is clear is that these psychological measures are somehow related and it is time to consider some practical implications.”
McCauley and co-author Sophia Moskalenko, a START postdoctoral research fellow at Bryn Mawr, suggested adjusting or expanding counterterrorism to focus more on mental health services and community building than on surveillance of communities at risk of radical views and violent action.
Over the course of the study, U.S. Muslims have reliably held very negative opinions of suicide bombing and ISIS and favored allowing more Syrian refugees into the United States.
Between Wave 6, which was conducted in Fall 2016, and Wave 7 in Spring 2017, however, “very unfavorable” views of ISIS decreased by 10 percent, while “somewhat favorable” opinions increased by 3 percent.
“Since this project began in 2012, we have seen trends of decreased radicalization over time in the general U.S. Muslim population alongside a crystallizing radical minority,” McCauley said.