Now Hear This!

A sociology paper from the University of Oxford has suggested there is a tie between the mindset of EEs and that of extreme Islamic terrorists.

The paper, titled “Engineers of Jihad,” was first published by the highly accredited university in November and saw some major news outlets begin to pick it up in January.

“We find that graduates from subjects such as science, engineering, and medicine are strongly overrepresented among Islamist movements in the Muslim world, though not among the extremist Islamic groups which have emerged in Western countries more recently,” the paper’s abstract reads. “We also find that engineers alone are strongly over-represented among graduates in violent groups in both realms. This is all the more puzzling for engineers are virtually absent from left-wing violent extremists and only present rather than over-represented among right-wing extremists.”

It’s not technical skills, however, that draws engineers into terrorist groups, according to the university research. Rather, the authors of the paper, Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog, hypothesize that engineers have a “mindset” that makes them a particularly good match for Islamism – one that makes engineers “more radicalized” than people with other degrees.

“Many Islamic radicals are not economically dispossessed, are often better educated than their peers, and quite a few went to university. Even more surprising, many of them are engineers – a profession that we would not naturally associate with a religiously inspired movement. The evidence of this puzzling link is not limited to notorious cases, such as that of Mohammad Atta, the 9/11 mastermind who trained as an architectural engineer, but is found right at the start of modern Islamic radicalism,” the paper reads.

The paper argues that engineers have “peculiar cognitive traits and dispositions” and that engineers are among some of the most right-leaning conservative thinking groups out there and are inclined to take more extreme religious positions.

“We could thus hypothesize that personal dispositions and style of thinking among engineers differ from those of students in other subjects in ways that could make them more prone to become involved in violent forms of radicalization, not just as willing recruits but as prime movers,” the paper states, adding that its findings are not proof of its mindset theory.

“The mindset hypothesis predicts that we should find engineers to have more extreme ideological tendencies than people in other disciplines, and a greater predilection towards joining radical political groups in general. If engineers really do have a special mindset, these predictions should be verifiable independently of Islamism,” the paper states.

Of the engineers the paper studies, electrical were the most common, followed by computer-related.

While the University of Oxford findings state that “engineers are also strong among non-violent Islamist movements in other MENA [Middle Eastern and North African] countries,” it also states that “engineers are overrepresented among violent Islamic radicals by two to four times the size we would expect.

“Finally, across the divide between violent and peaceful Islamic groups we found that while engineers are overrepresented in both, OEDs [other elite degrees] are much more strongly represented among the latter. Islamism seems to be appealing to both, but engineers seem much more prone to take the step to violence.”

The full paper can be found here. As someone who has acted as a research assistant on sociology papers in the past, this one’s a stretch. Still, while it relies on some very old research to make its points and lacks any true personal evaluation of engineers as a social group, it is certainly worth the read. The paper tops 80 pages, though, so settle in before you attempt to read it through. Comments on the Gambetta and Hertog’s hypothesizes are welcomed below.

--Suzanne Deffree
Managing Editor, News