IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/smppub/v8y2019i2p180-190.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Controlling Terrorism Through the Nudging of Social Interactions

Author

Listed:
  • Siddhartha Mitra

Abstract

The article explains how ‘nudge theory’ can be applied to alleviate the incidence of terrorism. Nudges, which bring about a change in the environment in which individual choice is exercised, do not just modify the behaviour of individuals in a society but thereby influence the social environment which impacts both the human brain and behaviour. Thus, a nudge when appropriately administered to a large number of individuals can potentially bring about social evolution. This article seeks to reap dividends from this analytical argument by setting up an axiomatic system which captures present-day individual and social behaviour and then elaborates on the resultant social dynamics, which lead to growth of terrorism inducing intercommunity hatred. As humans can evolve, any axioms about human and social behaviour are not timeless. The article therefore suggests nudges for utilizing the bidirectional causality between the human brain and social environment to render one or more axioms toothless and diminish the societal propensity for terrorism. The recommended nudges include those that promote formation of mixed neighbourhoods by discreetly inducing more frequent interactions of a positive nature between members of hitherto hostile socio-economic groups; cultural exchange on neutral ground; and corporate social responsibility fostering the wellbeing of poor communities. JEL Classification: B55, D74, D87

Suggested Citation

  • Siddhartha Mitra, 2019. "Controlling Terrorism Through the Nudging of Social Interactions," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 8(2), pages 180-190, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:smppub:v:8:y:2019:i:2:p:180-190
    DOI: 10.1177/2277978719870885
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2277978719870885
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2277978719870885?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abadie, Alberto & Gay, Sebastien, 2006. "The impact of presumed consent legislation on cadaveric organ donation: A cross-country study," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 599-620, July.
    2. Raj Chetty, 2015. "Behavioral Economics and Public Policy: A Pragmatic Perspective," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 1-33, May.
    3. Jean Tirole, 1996. "A Theory of Collective Reputations (with applications to the persistence of corruption and to firm quality)," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 63(1), pages 1-22.
    4. Saurabh Bhargava & George Loewenstein, 2015. "Behavioral Economics and Public Policy 102: Beyond Nudging," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 396-401, May.
    5. Carlos Alós-Ferrer, 2018. "A Review Essay on Social Neuroscience: Can Research on the Social Brain and Economics Inform Each Other?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(1), pages 234-264, March.
    6. Fortna, Virginia Page, 2015. "Do Terrorists Win? Rebels' Use of Terrorism and Civil War Outcomes," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 69(3), pages 519-556, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shoshan, Vered & Hazan, Tamir & Plonsky, Ori, 2023. "BEAST-Net: Learning novel behavioral insights using a neural network adaptation of a behavioral model," OSF Preprints kaeny, Center for Open Science.
    2. Löfgren, Åsa & Nordblom, Katarina, 2020. "A theoretical framework of decision making explaining the mechanisms of nudging," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 1-12.
    3. Christian Schubert, 2015. "On the ethics of public nudging: Autonomy and Agency," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201533, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    4. Samuli Reijula & Jaakko Kuorikoski & Timo Ehrig & Konstantinos Katsikopoulos & Shyam Sunder, 2018. "Nudge, Boost, or Design? Limitations of behaviorally informed policy under social interaction," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 2(1), pages 99-105, March.
    5. Inge van den Bijgaart & David Klenert & Linus Mattauch & Simona Sulikova, 2024. "Healthy climate, healthy bodies: Optimal fuel taxation and physical activity," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 91(361), pages 93-122, January.
    6. Loibl, Cäzilia & Jones, Lauren & Haisley, Emily, 2018. "Testing strategies to increase saving in individual development account programs," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 45-63.
    7. Obregón, Carlos, 2018. "Beyond behavioral economics: who is the economic man," MPRA Paper 89653, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Fabrice Etilé, 2019. "The Economics of Diet and Obesity: Public Policy," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) hal-02154445, HAL.
    9. Mattauch, Linus & van den Bijgaart, Inge & Klenert, David & Sulikova, Simona, 2020. "Optimal fuel taxation with suboptimal health choices," INET Oxford Working Papers 2020-22, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    10. Jan Schnellenbach, 2019. "Evolving hierarchical preferences and behavioral economic policies," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 31-52, January.
    11. Pablo Garcés-Velástegui, 2022. "On behavioral human development policies: how behavioral public policy adds to human development," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, vol. 91(5), pages 171-200, July.
    12. Carminati, Lara, 2020. "Behavioural Economics and Human Decision Making: Instances from the Health Care System," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(6), pages 659-664.
    13. Wettstein, Dominik J. & Boes, Stefan, 2022. "How value-based policy interventions influence price negotiations for new medicines: An experimental approach and initial evidence," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 112-121.
    14. Yasutaka Tominaga, 2021. "Organizational context matters: explaining different responses to militant leadership targeting," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 38(3), pages 270-291, May.
    15. Azariadis, Costas & Stachurski, John, 2005. "Poverty Traps," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5, Elsevier.
    16. Pierre Fleckinger & Matthieu Glachant & Gabrielle Moineville, 2017. "Incentives for Quality in Friendly and Hostile Informational Environments," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 242-274, February.
    17. Melindi-Ghidi, Paolo & Dedeurwaerdere, Tom & Fabbri, Giorgio, 2020. "Using environmental knowledge brokers to promote deep green agri-environment measures," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    18. Bramoullé, Yann & Goyal, Sanjeev, 2016. "Favoritism," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 16-27.
    19. Ahlin, Christian & Kim, In Kyung & Kim, Kyoo il, 2021. "Who commits fraud? evidence from korean gas stations," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    20. Daniel Agness & Travis Baseler & Sylvain Chassang & Pascaline Dupas & Erik Snowberg, 2022. "Valuing the Time of the Self-Employed," Working Papers 2022-2, Princeton University. Economics Department..

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Terrorism; social interaction; axiomatic system; social evolution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B55 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Social Economics
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • D87 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Neuroeconomics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:smppub:v:8:y:2019:i:2:p:180-190. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.