Kees van den Bos in the media on the tram attack in Utrecht
Prof. Kees van den Bos (Social, Health and Organisational Psychology) spoke in various media about the tram attack in Utrecht.
On March 20, appeared in Het Parool about the terms that were given to the Utrecht tram attack on the day that the incident took place. The Openbaar Ministerie spoke of a 'shooting incident' while premier Mark Rutte spoke of an 'attack'. "Ideally, no announcements should be made until everything has been investigated. But we live in a fast-paced society where everyone is looking for answers. Then one tries to interpret the incident as much as possible. It is difficult and the balance is precarious," accoding to Van den Bos.
different motives
If the authorities do not make clear statements about the events, there is a risk that people will start speculating via social media. Authorities therefore face a difficult dilemma. Nevertheless, it is undesirable to quickly use strong terms such as 'attack'. "In order to provide clarity quickly a single label, such as terrorism, is used. But there can be different motives for an act. Someone can be both mentally ill and an ideological extremist. For the general public this is a complicated message, people certainly prefer to think in black and white when it comes to these kinds of serious events, while the reality is often more complicated", says Van den Bos.
de morgen
In , Kees van den Bos discusses the causes and developments of radicalism (see also ). He links the attack in Utrecht to the attack in Christchurch, which took place three days earlier. "This dynamic of action and reaction can be seen all the time in the current terrorist wave. In Europe there have been various right-wing extremist attacks in response to attacks by IS. Muslim radicalisation and right-wing extremist radicalisation now reinforce each other so much that they can continue for a long time to come", according to Van den Bos.