11/4/2019 The neuroscience of terrorism: how we convinced a group of radicals to let us scan their brains
https://theconversation.com/the-neuroscience-of-terrorism-how-we-convinced-a-group-of-radicals-to-let-us-scan-their-brains-114855 1/13
Authors
Nafees Hamid
PhD Candidate, Department of Security
and Crime Science, UCL
Clara Pretus
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
The young man sitting in the waiting room of our neuroimaging facility wearing
skinny jeans and trainers looked like a typical Spanish 20-year-old of Moroccan
origin. Yassine* was bouncy, chatting up the research assistants, and generally in
good spirits. He was like so many other Barcelona youths, except he openly expressed
a desire to engage in violence for jihadist causes.
As we took him through a battery of tests and questionnaires, we were barely able to
keep him in his seat as he kept proclaiming his willingness to travel to Syria to kill
himself. “I would go tomorrow, I would do it tomorrow,” he said. When we probed for
the sincerity of his claim, he responded, “only if we go together. You pay for the
tickets”, with a wink and a smile. Less budding foreign fighter and more extremist
Brain scans from three 'radicals'. © Nafees Hamid and Clara Pretus, Author provided
The neuroscience of terrorism: how we convinced a group of
radicals to let us scan their brains
June 12, 2019 9.00am BST