Engineers Have a Terrorist Mindset?

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday January 29, 2008 @05:02AM from the only-the-ones-who-drink dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Do engineers have a way of looking at the world not all that different from terrorists? According to an article in the EE Times, they do. The story cites 'Engineers of Jihad,' a paper (pdf download) by two Oxford University sociologists, who found that graduates in science, engineering, and medicine are strongly overrepresented among Islamist movements. The paper also found that engineers are 'over-represented' among graduates who gravitate to violent groups. Authors Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog chalk this all up to what they call the 'engineering mindset,' which they define as 'a mindset that inclines them to take more extreme conservative and religious positions.' Is this just pop psychology masquerading as science?"

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Re:is it April 1? by Anonymous Coward · 2008-01-29 06:26 · Score: 0, Offtopic

Try letting the Chinese take over 1/3 of your entire city, ie Vancouver, and see what happens. Outright refusal to learn English, contempt for non-Chinese (particulary Indians/Pakistanis, for some reason), massive corruption, etc. Basically a wholesale import of modern China. Canadian multiculturalism = failure.

I hate to say it, but the Americans got immigration right, aside from the whole illegals thing.