Title

Explaining The Origins Of The Iran Hostage Crisis: A Cognitive Perspective

Keywords

Analogical reasoning; Iran hostage crisis; Psychology of terrorism

Abstract

Psychological approaches have long been utilized to try to understand the mindsets of terrorists, but much of this literature has drawn on Freudian-inspired psychoanalytic approaches derived from the field of what is sometimes known as abnormal psychology. Building upon recent work which has largely dismissed the value of this kind of approach, this article suggests that we ought to draw more actively than hitherto upon newer, cognitive-based approaches to the study of terrorism. Stressing the importance of analogical reasoning in normal human reasoning, this article seeks to explain the actions of the Iranian students who stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran in November 1979. Cognitive images of "another 1953," it is argued, played an especially decisive role in the hostage takers' decision-making processes. While analogical reasoning represents only one cognitive approach to decision-making, future research in the field of terrorist studies should utilize more up-to-date "mainstream" approaches to understanding the psychology of terrorist decision-making.

Publication Date

7-1-2006

Publication Title

Terrorism and Political Violence

Volume

18

Issue

2

Number of Pages

259-279

Document Type

Review

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/09546550500383217

Socpus ID

33645708882 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/33645708882

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