Who are the "Syrian rebels"?

We have been surveying and interviewing them right up until the day of the offensive.

+100s of psychometric surveys/in-depth interviews
The most up-to-date database on rebel motivations, identity, willingness to fight, etc

Here's what we know 🧵 Reasons for joining the Syrian revolution

- NOT material benefits, seeking respect or following advice from others
- Instead, they felt a moral obligation to fight political injustice
- To protect their community & get revenge
- Believed they could topple the Syrian regime

1/ Who should we blame for the storming? Is it Trump's rhetoric? QAnon and other conspiracy theories? Lack of security? Mob mentality? How about all of it. To understand political violence we need to distinguish between violent propensity and motivation as @noemie_bouhana does. 2/ Propensity is what psychologically builds up over time and what many call "radicalization". It's basically how someone's ideas, identities, threat perception and so on are built up to increase the likelihood that they will act in a violent way.

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… "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/