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Plus: this week's One Question—What motivates political violence?—and related stories on victimhood; how freedom divides; researching ISIS; and more. [View in browser]( | [Become a member]( August 30, 2022   Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here](. Good Morning! Here’s the top science news—plus this week’s One Question and related Nautilus stories [READ NAUTILUS](   DISCOVERIES The Top Science News This Week   [Newly Discovered Exoplanet May Be a “Super Earth” Covered in Water]( Researchers say the planet, TOI-1452 b, is five times the mass of Earth, 30 percent of it being water. They can’t wait for the James Webb Telescope to have a better look. [Popular Science→](   [Secret Data, Tiny Islands, and a Quest for Treasure on the Ocean Floor]( Cobalt, copper, and nickel—elements essential to the green energy revolution—litter the seabed in rocks called “nodules.” Mining these can generate a fortune, but who benefits? And will ocean-floor ecosystems survive the extraction? [The New York Times→](   [Immortal Jellyfish Genes Identified that May Explain Their Long Lives]( Scientists report insights into mechanisms that allow Turritopsis dohrnii to “escape death.” [New Scientist→]( Experience the endless possibilities and deep human connections that science offers [SUBSCRIBE TODAY](   [Unlock the Mysteries the Minds]( Inspired by the works of Oliver Sacks, Audible Exclusive [Radiant Minds: The World of Oliver Sacks]( explores consciousness, the brain, and the human experience. Start your free 30-day trial now. [Start Listening for Free](   ONE QUESTION What Motivates Political Violence? INTERVIEW BY BRIAN GALLAGHER One question for [Katarzyna Jaśko](, a social psychologist at Jagiellonian University in Poland who studies decision-making and the mechanisms that influence the perception of social justice in unequal intergroup settings.   The Salman Rushdie stabbing was a very clear example of political violence motivated by an ideological cause. When people have a sense that an issue is moralized and start thinking about it in terms of good or bad, they are more willing to use extreme measures to defend the cause that they start perceiving in moral terms. When you think of your ideological goals as being super fundamental and moral, maybe you’re then more likely to use very extreme means to defend moral values. In our[recent study](, we examined a U.S. dataset going back to the 1940s. It consists of 1,500 people who committed crimes, which could be violent or non-violent, but all were ideologically motivated. According to that dataset, acting on behalf of a right-wing cause or an Islamist cause made it more likely that the act was violent. Acting on behalf of a left-wing cause made it less likely that the act was violent. We also examined a global dataset consisting of terrorist attacks. We were predicting whether a terrorist attack resulted in fatalities or not. People might have this impression that if there’s a terrorist attack, there must be fatalities. A large percentage of terrorist attacks do not end up in fatalities. We found that attacks motivated by left-wing ideology were less likely to result in fatalities in contrast to right wing and Islamist causes. Islamist attacks killed the most, and far-right attacks were somewhere in between. The results from the two datasets were basically the same, so that gives us more confidence that this is a result that generalizes across samples and levels of analysis. As a next step, it would be interesting to differentiate aspects within left-wing and right-wing extremism. Some people, for example, suggest that in recent years you can observe greater violence in the context of Islamist extremism because the religious aspect of Islam’s ideology has become more dominant. Part of the Iranian fatwa calling for the murder of Rushdie included a reward for not just money but also glory. This touches on a part of the theoretical model we’ve been working with for quite some time—a quest for personal significance as motivation for political violence. Personal significance is basically a desire to feel recognized, respected. When you feel humiliated, discriminated against—these are the conditions that are more likely to result in support for violence, or engagement in violence. Research shows that a promise of glory, or a certain reward which doesn’t have to be monetary, partly motivated people who joined ISIS and other terrorist groups. You could infer from the attack on Rushdie that religious causes are more likely to be perceived in terms of absolutely good or bad, but it doesn’t have to be associated with religion. What would be interesting, and what we are thinking of doing next, is dividing the right-wing category into religiously motivated individuals and far-right individuals not really motivated by religion, to see whether there’s different tendencies to use violence. Some studies suggest that individuals drawn to conservative causes, both Islamist and right-wing, are more oriented toward social dominance—less egalitarian, less open-minded. It might be related to greater support and willingness to use violence if you have this view of the world, that groups or individuals are structured in a hierarchy, and some groups are more deserving, and have a right to dominate other groups.   Related Nautilus Stories   [SOCIOLOGY]( [How Freedom Divides]( BY MARK W. MOFFETT As a biologist who studies animal behavior, particularly the long-term stability of the societies of different species, our own included, I’ve traveled through diverse cultures around the world. [Continue reading →](   [ANTHROPOLOGY]( [Are Suicide Bombings Really Driven by Ideology?]( BY BRIAN GALLAGHER Harvey Whitehouse doesn’t like how New Atheists like Richard Dawkins make religion out to be a mere “set of propositions” amounting to a “failed science.” [Continue reading →](   [PSYCHOLOGY]( [Why People Feel Like Victims]( BY MARK MACNAMARA In a polarized nation, victimhood is a badge of honor. [Continue reading →](   [ANTHROPOLOGY]( [How ISIS Broke My Questionnaire]( BY LYDIA WILSON I walk into Starbucks in Achrafieh, Beirut and feel all eyes on me. [Continue reading →](   [TECHNOLOGY]( [Ideology Is the Original Augmented Reality]( BY SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK Released in July 2016, Pokémon Go is a location-based, augmented-reality game for mobile devices, typically played on mobile phones. [Continue reading →](   Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher   [Own Your Mind Business]( Discover what makes you tick with [How We’re Wired](, the podcast that goes behind the scenes of cutting-edge neuroscience research to uncover the stories of how our brains grow, change, and ultimately die. [Listen Now](   BECOME A SUBSCRIBER [Your Last Chance To Win a Celestron Telescope]( Today is your last opportunity to [enter for a chance to win]( a StarSense Explorer TLT 80AZ telescope from Celestron. Explore the stars like never before with this pioneering telescope. To enter, reply to any Nautilus newsletter with “Celestron” and your Instagram handle. Be sure you are following @[celestronuniverse]( and @[nautilusmag]( on Instagram to be eligible. The contest will run for one more day and the randomly selected winner will be announced on 9/1. [Enter to Win](   [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2022 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. 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