Outcome-oriented moral evaluation in terrorists

BAEZ, SANDRA; MANES, FACUNDO; GARCÍA, ADOLFO M.; IBÁÑEZ, AGUSTÍN; HERRERA, EDUAR; YOUNG, LIANE

Nature Human Behaviour

Springer Nature

Año: 2017 vol. 1

As shown by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, terrorism is one of the most pernicious phenomena for contemporary societies. In addition to obliterating freedom and physical integrity of victims, terrorist practices can destabilize governments, undermine civil harmony, and threaten economic development. This is tragically corroborated by the recent history of Colombia, a country marked by shocking escalations of paramilitary terrorist violence. While multiple disciplines are struggling to understand and prevent the atrocities of terrorism, the contributions from cognitive science have been virtually null. Social cognition abilities and, in particular, moral cognition skills, have been proposed as important variables in relation to criminal and violent profiles. Terrorism usually involves both criminal and violent behavior. Against this background, the present study aimed to assess the moral judgments and social-cognitive profiles of 66 ex-combatants from a paramilitary terrorist group. We found that moral judgment in terrorists is abnormally guided by outcomes rather than by the integration of intentions and outcomes. Such a pattern was partially related to emotion recognition and proactive aggression scores but independent from other cognitive domains ?fluid intelligence, executive functions (EFs), and self-reported aggression levels. In addition, moral judgment was the measure that best discriminated between terrorists and non-criminals. Moreover, the terrorists? skewed moral cognition pattern was not observed in convicted murderers with no terrorist background. These results have important legal and forensic implications, and they pave the way for groundbreaking translational research within social cognition research.