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Terrorism Pre-survey Questionnaire

Please take a few moments to answer this brief pre-survey questionnaire. The purpose of this pre-survey is to help create a survey instrument free of western ethnocentrism and particularly white, male ethnocentrism.

Terrorists want something. The goal of my research is to discover the extent to which they speak for the societies that they claim to represent. I want to understand how much popular support there is for terrorism, what fuels popular support for terrorism, and how the United States and the developed West can respond more diplomatically to alleviate the social concerns that drive popular support for terrorism. My goal is that one day the societies plagued with the violence of terrorism can be free of both terrorism and the perceived social injustices that may be creating popular support for terrorism. All information obtained in this study will be held completely confidential and use solely for the purpose of creating a less biased survey instrument. Individual responses will be promptly destroyed once the data is compiled.

Please Copy and Paste Survey Questions into Comment to Participate in Survey.


Age:______________________________________________________

Race:_____________________________________________________

Sex_______________________________________________________

Marital Status:______________________________________________

Level of Education:__________________________________________

How Many Languages Do You Speak?___________________________

Income Level?______________________________________________

Place of Residence:___________________________________________

Occupation:_________________________________________________

How do you define terrorism?


What do you believe a terrorist does?


Are Islamic jihadists always terrorists?


Is the strategy of terrorism acceptable in some situations?


Are there freedom fighters in your country or near your home?


Who are they?


What do they want?


How does the world view them?


How do you view them?


Does your community agree with their goals?


What do you think of the West?


What do you think of America?


What questions should I be asking that I’m not?



*For those of you from educated and/or wealthy backgrounds (by your country’s standards), do you know a friend or a relative (preferably non-English speaking) that’s not wealthy and/or educated that would be willing to fill out the pre-survey instrument as well? I want to hear all voices, particularly those whose opinions I wouldn’t normally have access to.

Thank you,
John Maszka.

Why is This Survey Important?

My research investigates potential reasons for popular support of terrorism. Specifically, I’m interested in the correlation between American foreign policy and terrorism. To what extent does American unilateralism, preemption, and hegemony fuel popular support for terrorism? This is an important inquiry as it directly relates to my hypothesis that terrorism, regardless of its causes, is ultimately possible only with sufficient popular support. Consequently, only once a way to eliminate popular support for terrorism is discovered will society be able to eliminate terrorism itself. My major obstacle at this point is to devise a survey instrument that is nonbiased, non-ethnocentric, and asks the right questions. To do this, I’ve put together this pre-survey questionnaire

With a new administration in office, there is no better time to advocate for the necessary foreign policy changes America needs to make. But in order to do that, we need information. Please Fill Out This Survey.

Measuring popular support for terrorism also provides a method of measuring and predicting 1) the potential for terrorism in any given society, 2) the direction that acts of terrorism tend to be moving in (e.g. westward, eastward, or remaining static), and 3) broad trends in the support for terrorism, such as whether popular support is increasing among moderates, Westerners, and so forth. For these reasons, it is important to understand the correlation between these three main components of American foreign policy and the dynamic trends of international terrorism.

The body of work on American unilateralism, preemption, and hegemony is virtually endless. However, to date, no conclusive causal link has been established. One reason for this lack of solid evidence is the limited amount, and proprietary nature, of survey research in areas that are burdened by the scourge of terrorism. Another problem is the great lack of consensus on what terrorism is.
Terrorism has been researched, debated, analyzed, and contemplated by some of the greatest minds on the planet. And yet there is no uniform definition of terrorism. Consequently, there is no general agreement on the causes of terrorism, no agreed upon procedure to stop terrorism, nor is there even any one accepted method of collecting data on individual acts of terrorism. These obstacles render the task of measuring popular support for terrorism even more arduous.

Of course, even without such obstacles, measuring popular support for terrorism is tricky business. Beyond all the usual balancing acts such as the challenge of drawing a representative sample and the nearly impossible goal of procuring a survey instrument free of bias and ethnocentrism, members of the population may be reluctant to admit that they support certain acts of terrorism or that they sympathize with terrorists’ goals and motivation. Likewise, in areas where open support for terrorism has not yet manifest itself, potential support for terrorism may more clearly be measured through a disdain for the hegemon (the United States) and its policies.