Author ORCID Identifier
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-15-2014
Publication Title
Studies in Conflict & Terrorism
Volume
37
Issue
5
First Page
422
Last Page
439
Abstract
Conventional wisdom holds that terrorism is committed for strategic reasons as a form of costly signaling to an audience. However, since over half of terrorist attacks are not credibly claimed, conventional wisdom does not explain many acts of terrorism. This article suggests that there are four lies about terrorism that can be incorporated in a rationalist framework: false claiming, false flag, the hot-potato problem, and the lie of omission. Each of these lies about terrorism can be strategically employed to help a group achieve its desired goal(s) without necessitating that an attack be truthfully claimed.
Recommended Citation
Kearns, E.M., Conlon, B., & Young, J.K. (2014, April 15). Lying About Terrorism. Studies in Conflict & terrorism, 37(5), 422-439. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2014.893480
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Studies in Conflict & Terrorism on April 15, 2014, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2014.893480