identifying Social Aspects of Terrorism on Human Behavior with a Design Point of View: Form Follows Fear (original) (raw)

2016, Framing Violence: Conflicting Images, Identities, And Discourses

As a crucial part of social behaviors, fear is and has been a feeling that has great influence in decision-making processes. This feeling is constructed by both social realities and personal experiences, while outpouring attitudes consequently shape norms and responses of the society. Moreover, connotations of this notion differ for individuals and society according to various aspects such as class, gender and generation. Nevertheless, terrorism is one of the main fears that mankind has to face nowadays. Beyond individual fears, terrorism threatens the world more perilously with more dreadful weapons developed by modern science. This recklessly unchained force consequently changes the way of feeling fear in societies and imposes new reflexes on human behavior and mood. The function of fear and anxiety triggers acting as a signal of danger, which causes generation of appropriate adaptive responses. Moreover, this process influences material culture and due to this danger people either feel an urge to adapt their relationship with physical environment towards a more secure plane, or adapt their physical environment to endure. At this point, the role of designer emerges as a facilitator for people to cope with such fears of terrorism through products and spaces. Design approaches to form, color, material and geometry of things and spaces in order to transform feelings, behaviors and aspirations. The study identifies prominent designs giving a special emphasis on security and discusses their influence on human behavior and social interactions. From this point of view, this study investigates the social behavior pattern rooted in fear of terrorism through its reflections on design of objects. Furthermore, the study points out applications of design aspects in three classes: (i) Objects developed or modified by individuals, (ii) Objects designed for personal use in order to tackle with the security concerns and (iii) Designs addressing security needs of public areas.