What Makes a Terrorist? Muslims’ and non-Muslims’ Lay Perceptions of Risk Factors and Their Consequences for Counter-terrorism Policy Support

The question of why people become terrorists has preoccupied scholars and policy makers for decades. Yet, very little is known about how lay perceive individuals at risk becoming terrorists. In two studies conducted in the U.K., we aimed to fill this gap. Study 1 showed that Muslims non-Muslims perceived a potential minority-group terrorist terms both structural (e.g., life-history, social) individual factors personality, psychopathology, ideology). 2, right-wing majority-group as having more predispositions terrorism than left-wing terrorist. Importantly, studies, individualist perceptions such psychopathology were positively associated with support stricter law enforcement, whereas structuralist adverse childhood experiences social interventions. Lay seem have multifactorial understandings terrorists, which influence their counter-terrorism support.