ABSTRACT
Our study examines the personal and group values that appear in the communications of terrorist and non-terrorist groups. In the psychological literature, values are defined as "desirable, transsituational goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in people's lives" (Struch, Schwartz, & Van der Kloot, 2002, p. 16). They underlie a multitude of motives and actions, and are considered to be relatively stable even though their importance relative to each other may vary as a function of important experiences and events.
Values ol Achievement, rower, spirituality, Benevolence., and Security were ranked near the top for all three groups. In addition, Self-Direction and Universalism both decreased in al Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula documents as the attack days approached. The present study demonstrates that universal values are a useful tool in examining differences between groups and a potential tool for identifying precursors of terrorist attacks.
