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Moving Image / Collective uncertainty, catastrophic evolution, and Islamic terrorism

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Title
Collective uncertainty, catastrophic evolution, and Islamic terrorism
Creator
Moghaddam, Fathali M
Date Created and/or Issued
2008-04-06
Publication Information
Claremont Graduate University. School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences
Contributing Institution
Claremont Colleges Library
Collection
Lectures on Applied Psychology and Evaluation Science
Rights Information
Physical rights are retained by the institution. Copyright is retained in accordance with U. S. Copyright laws.
Description
Dr. Fathali M. Moghaddam states that collective uncertainty has a central role in terrorism as emanating from Islamic communities. To examine this, he developed a macro, cultural-evolutionary analysis of Islamic terrorism. Fractured globalization has given rise to sudden and large scale contact, involving interactions between groups that are uneven in preadaptiveness. The result is catastrophic evolution, a rapid decline in cultural and linguistic diversity around the world. Sudden contact and the threat of catastrophic evolution give rise to collective uncertainty. Under certain conditions collective uncertainty results in the adoption of highly aggressive defense mechanism. Islamic fundamentalists experience collective uncertainty and identity threat in the face of spreading secularism and Westernization. In response, Islamic fundamentalists are ‘defending to the death’ cultural carriers they see to be central to their survival (e.g., hejab, Islamic veil for women), and in extreme cases adopting terrorist tactics to try to prevent what they see to be the extinction of their group. Dr. Moghaddam suggests that Western countries try affecting fundamentalists through cultural exchange and not isolation.
Type
moving image
Format
video/mp4
video/h264; video/quicktime
video/f4v
Identifier
lap00041
http://ccdl.claremont.edu/cdm/ref/collection/lap/id/49
Language
English
Subject
Uncertainty
Globalization
Languages
Fundamentalism
Fear
Extremism
Collective Uncertainty
Source
Original video: Digital video cassette; 60 minute DVM; Tape 3; recorded symposium presentation entitled, "Collective uncertainty, catastrophic evolution, and Islamic terrorism" from the symposium entitled, "Extremism and the Psychology of Uncertainty" April 06, 2008
Relation
Extremism and the Psychology of Uncertainty
Claremont Graduate University's Stauffer Symposium Series
Claremont Graduate University Lectures on Applied Psychology and Evaluation Science

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