Sebastian WOJCIECHOWSKI Institute of Political Science and Journalism Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznañ The Psychosocial Sources of Terrorism The process of the emergence and expansion of terrorism results from broadly taken psychosocial factors. 1 Amongst others, it is closely related to the problems of preju- dices, stereotypes, xenophobia, hatred, hostility, intolerance, sense of wrong, inequality and threat, etc. Terrorism is frequently rooted in a given group’s assessment of a certain attitude or value, one which is considered paramount and therefore requires that all other matters be unreservedly subordinated to it. The simplified division of reality is a significant psychosocial factor in the develop- ment and shaping of terrorism. The essential principle here is the division of the world into us and them. This division is fundamental for affiliation with a given group, com- munity or nation. It is frequently intensified by the following three attributes: – the above division is considered absolute, whereas the sources for the division are sought not in objective reality but in its subjective perception; – the antagonisms and contradictions between the world of ‘us’ and that of ‘them’ are assumed to be unavoidable (e.g. those between the West and Islam, or between the rich North and poor South); – there are no arguments more profound than the distinction between ‘ours’ – ‘yours’ – ‘mine’ – theirs’, etc. A. Hertz claims that the above assumptions generate the division of reality into “the world of our own objects and that of strangers’, alien objects. The world of my own ob- jects includes my (e.g. ethnic or religious) group and what belongs there. The rest in- volves the world of strange objects”. 2 An individual is frequently considered to belong to a group because he/she shares the same views, speaks the same language, is of the same religion, has the same skin color or because his/her parents have formerly been acknowledged as group members. The same mechanism is also applied in reverse. The problem of strangeness and ostra- 1 See: A. Schmid, A. Jongman, Political Terrorism, A New Guide to Actors, Authors, Concepts, Data Bases, Theories, and Literature, Amsterdam–Oxford–New York 1988; Meeting the Challenges of Global Terrorism, ed. by D. Das, P. Kratcoski, Lanham–Boulder–New York–Oxford 2003, p. 139 i n.; N. Kressel, Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror, Perseus Books 1996; J. Ross, A Model of the Psychological Causes of Oppositional Political Terrorism, “Journal of Peace Psycho- logy” 1996, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 129–141; Z. Ratajczak, Contemporary Terrorism from the Psychologi- cal Perspective, in: Contemporary Society and Global Terrorism, Poznañ 2004. 2 A. Hertz, Socjologia nieprzedawniona, Warszawa 1992, p. 381.