Maynooth University to study reactions to terror

A first-of-its-kind study examining how people react in the first 10 minutes of a Paris-style terrorist attack is being conducted by Maynooth University.

The study, led by the head of the university’s anthropology department, Mark Maguire, aims to offer first responder services vital insights that will enable them to react to a terrorist attack in a measured and effective way.

Terror attacks using assault rifles and explosives in highly-populated urban settings have become so common that counter-terrorist analysts have given them their own designation: Marauding Terrorist Firearms Attacks (MTFAs).

However, despite the extensive amount of information that is collected following these attacks, there has been no research carried out into how people respond in an MTFA scenario.

As well as assessing information collected by international agencies, the Maynooth research team will conduct interviews with security forces, first responders, and survivors of attacks to explore people’s movements and actions during MTFAs. The study will focus particularly on the 2011 attacks in Norway; the 2013 Westgate Shopping Mall attack in Nairobi; and the November 2015 attacks in the Bataclan in Paris.

Mr Maguire said central to the research will be an examination of how people react in the first 10 minutes of a terror attack.

“Those first 10 minutes of a terrorist attack are extremely long for those experiencing it. An armed security response has not arrived and nearby first response services cannot enter the scene. How people respond in this extreme situation can provide practical information for emergency services and first responders reacting to an attack, but from an academic perspective it also provides a range of insights into human decision-making processes in a uniquely pressurised environment,” he said.

He said that, despite the research being in its early stages, initial findings showed that the role played by natural instinct may be overstated: “The evidence points to learned behaviour and cultural factors playing a far more significant role in decision-making processes when people are placed in extreme stress. Where the public is accustomed to being protected by the government, they are more likely to have a passive response to an attack. Conversely, people from states where there has been much conflict and unrest are more likely to take action against the attackers.”

Following the publication of its initial findings, the research team will organise a series of workshops that will bring representatives from relevant stakeholder organisations together for role-playing exercises, with a view towards developing a major international research project.

A key message already coming from the research is that an MTFA should be thought of as a quasi-battlefield scenario, meaning there is an established bank of knowledge that first responders can draw upon to improve their services.