article_snippet.sent: It comes to mind when a conflict happens, when you react aggressively," some experts such as psychology professor Arie W. Kruglanski said.
article_snippet.sent: It sits there in our unconscious and can be activated under certain circumstances when the passions run high, and result in actual behavior.
article_snippet.sent: "We all have this morbid, instinctual fascination with death and killing and torture, which is sublimated and constrained by civilization and our culture and socialization," he said.
article_snippet.sent: Most of our are peaceful even though these drives exist in our subconscious; civilization rests on civilization ability to constrain these drives.
article_snippet.sent: But when the "death instinct" -- "this drive to kill and promote violence" -- was legitimized by a powerful narrative, such as a religious or ideological call to global jihad, "then that can result in unregulated atrocities," he said.
article_snippet.sent: In each of us there is this battle of good versus evil," said Kruglanski.
article_snippet.sent: It's a battle in everybody's soul.