What power do we have in preventing the next white nationalist #terrorist attack? I draw from our brain scan studies of #jihadist supporters to give some insights in this @nytopinion vid. It means changing the way we talk in the aftermath of an attack. 1/
nytimes.com/2020/03/02/opi…
nytimes.com/2020/03/02/opi…
"Terrorists rely on you and me and the way we speak about their crimes to increase the impact, the virtual blast radius, massively, from a small town to the whole nation... We have a power and responsibility to save lives, but it means changing the way we talk." 2/
"My colleagues and I carried out a bunch of psychological tests, including the first-ever brain scans of radicalized people. We didn’t find any evidence of mental illness, but what we did find were clues to what makes people willing to fight and die for their beliefs." 3/
Some of our participants played a virtual ballgame. After a couple of rounds, half the players were excluded from the game. Then we put them into an MRI scanner. Previous research shows that lIFG is associated with processing "sacred values", and we replicated this. But... 4/
after they were ejected from the ballgame, something weird happened. It lit up for non-sacred values, too. And they increased their explicit willingness for violence. In other words, when they felt excluded, the list of things they’re willing to fight and die for got longer. 5/
"Of course, people don’t commit terrorist attacks just because nobody plays ball with them. But our research shows that if someone is at the early stage of #radicalization, excluding them can make them more willing to use violence." 6/
Next, we scanned highly radicalized supporters of an Al Qaeda associate. We asked them to rate their willingness to fight and die for a series of sacred values, and then we showed them where their peers— other Muslims in the community — fell on the scale. 7/
We found that when our subjects were highly willing to use violence, the DLPFC was deactivated. And that’s a problem, because it could mean that they’re not as open to negotiation or persuasion. So how do we "reopen" this person’s mind? 8/
When we told them their wider social group were not as willing to use violence as they, the DLPFC reactivated & they lowered their explicit willingness to fight and die. The lesson: people can be turned away from violence if they believe that a wider social group disapproves. 9/
In the days after the #ElPaso shooting, I saw a lot of tweets like this — prominent figures like @AOC and @rezaaslan saying Trump’s base is white nationalist, or if you support Trump, you support terrorism. 10/ 
I’m not saying you shouldn’t call out racism or question Trump's rhetoric but blaming all conservatives has risks. It could push some closer to violence. At the very least, it creates divisions in society, which is exactly what terrorists want to achieve. 11/
So here's what you can do: "No. 1, don’t blame whole groups. And if you see or hear friends, family or people you follow online talking that way, challenge them. And number two, seek out and amplify voices on the right who are condemning violence." 12/
I still remember this tweet from a Trump supporter urging him to make a statement about #whitenationalism. He said, “We have to tell them we do not want them to be part of us.” Voices like this have the power to turn someone away from violence. 13/
"We’re not responsible for the actions of terrorists, but we all have the power to limit the blast radius of an atrocity and maybe even prevent the next one." 14/
This all my might be easier to read with @threadreaderapp, unroll please :)
And huge thank you to @AdamWestbrook for his creative vision as filmmaker and making this happen!
In easier to read to format now: threadreaderapp.com/thread/1234436…
@threadreaderapp For those interested in going into further detail about our neuro studies, along with hyperlinks to the academic articles, I recommend this piece written by @ClaraPretus and myself. theconversation.com/the-neuroscien…
