Scott Atran

About

Scott Atran is an anthropologist who experiments on ways scientists and ordinary people categorize and reason about nature, on the cognitive and evolutionary psychology of religion, and on limits of rational choice in political and cultural conflict. He has conducted fieldwork around the world, interviewing the leadership and members of insurgent and extremist groups. Atran has briefed NATO, the U.S. Senate and House, National Security Council staff at the White House, UN Security Council, EU Governments, and the World Economic Forum on issues related to youth and violent extremism. He is tenured as Research Director in Anthropology at France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Institut Jean Nicod at École Normale Supérieure, in Paris. Additionally, he is a founding fellow of the Centre for Resolution of Intractable Conflict at Harris Manchester College and the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. His work and life have been spotlighted in the popular and scientific press, including feature and cover stories of the New York Times Magazine, Chronicle of Higher Education, Nature, and Science Magazine.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Political science
• Social psychology
• Sociology
• Epistemology

Selected publications

• Psychology of Transnational Terrorism and Extreme Political Conflict

  Annual Review of Psychology · 2020-09-08 · 84 citations

  review1st authorCorresponding

  Fear of transnational terrorism, along with a revitalization of sectarian nationalism, is sundering social and political consensus across the world. Can psychology help? The focus of this review is on the psychological and related social factors that instigate and sustain violent extremism and polarizing group conflict. I first describe the changing global landscape of transnational terrorism, encompassing mainly violent Islamist revivalism and resurgent racial and ethnic supremacism. Next, I ex…

  PublisherDOI

• Threat Enhances Aggressive Inclinations Among Devoted Actors Via Increase in Their Relative Physical Formidability

  Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · 2020-03-12 · 28 citations

  articleOpen access

  Devoted actors—those who share sacred values with a group with which they are fused—are particularly willing to self-sacrifice to defend their group or values when they are threatened. Here, we explore whether they are also prone to aggressive inclinations toward those who endanger their group or convictions. To that end, we examined the effect of threat and the two components of the devoted actor framework—identity fusion and sacred values—on aggressive inclinations. These inclinations were reg…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Spiritual over physical formidability determines willingness to fight and sacrifice through loyalty in cross-cultural populations

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2022-02-07 · 21 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  = 3,285), we extend insights from field investigations in conflict zones to offline and online surveys to show that personal spiritual formidability-the conviction and immaterial resources (values, strengths of beliefs, character) of a person to fight-is positively associated with the will to fight and sacrifice for others. The physical formidability of groups in conflict has long been promoted as the primary factor in human decisions to fight or flee in times of conflict. Here, studies in Spain…

  PublisherDOI

• Transcultural pathways to the will to fight

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2023-06-06 · 19 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The ‘Will to Fight Act’ was amended to the nation's annual defense bill (FY2023 NDAA) urging attention to assessing will to fight, after debate acknowledging that current evaluation efforts within the political and military establishment remain contentious, fragmented, and meager. This likely will persist, along with attendant policy failures and grievous costs, without awareness of research that the social and psychological sciences reveal on the will to fight [S. Atran, Science 373 , 1063 (202…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Measures of devotion to ISIS and other fighting and radicalized groups

  Current Opinion in Psychology · 2020-03-09 · 6 citations

  review1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Mental Models of a Mesoamerican Forest Environment and Human Health

  NSF · $125k · 2004–2007

• Sacred Values in Decision Making and Cultural Conflict

  NSF · $750k · 2005–2010

• Sacred Values and Biological Antecedents of Political Conflict

  NSF · $1.2M · 2008–2014

Frequent coauthors

• Jeremy Ginges

  60 shared

• Robert Axelrod

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  48 shared

• Douglas L. Medin

  Northwestern University

  40 shared

• Hammad Sheikh

  Mayo Hospital

  37 shared

• Richard E. Davis

  San Diego Miramar College

  28 shared

• Clara Pretus

  24 shared

• Óscar Vilarroya

  Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

  21 shared

• Ángel Gómez

  20 shared

Labs

• Scott AtranPI

Education

• PhD, Anthropology

  Columbia University

  1984

• MA, Social Relations

  Johns Hopkins University

  1973

• BA, Anthropology

  Columbia University Columbia College

  1972

Awards & honors

• Founding fellow of the Centre for Resolution of Intractable…

Similar researchers at University of Michigan

• Jeremy Levineh-78
• Brian A. Jacobh-68
• Dean Yangh-61