Research Article | Special Issue: Psychology of Violent Extremism

A Behavior-Change model of jihadi media: The Information-Motivation-Behavioral skills framework and TTP video propaganda

Sachal Jacob

, Weeda Mehran

, Jiaxin Tong, & Anthony Lemieux

https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00071
Published: October 21, 2026
Copyright: The authors (CC BY 4.0)

Jacob, S., Mehran, W., Tong, J., & Lemieux, A. (2026). A Behavior-Change model of jihadi media: The Information-Motivation-Behavioral skills framework and TTP video propaganda. advances.in/psychology, 1, e486994. https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00071

Jacob, Sachal, et al. "A Behavior-Change model of jihadi media: The Information-Motivation-Behavioral skills framework and TTP video propaganda." advances.in/psychology, vol. 1, no. 1, 2026, e486994. https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00071.

Jacob, Sachal, Weeda Mehran, Jiaxin Tong, and Anthony Lemieux. 2026. "A Behavior-Change model of jihadi media: The Information-Motivation-Behavioral skills framework and TTP video propaganda." advances.in/psychology 1 (1): e486994. https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00071.

Jacob S, Mehran W, Tong J, Lemieux A. A Behavior-Change model of jihadi media: The Information-Motivation-Behavioral skills framework and TTP video propaganda. advances.in/psychology. 2026;1(1):e486994. doi:10.56296/aip00071.

Jacob, S. et al. (2026) 'A Behavior-Change model of jihadi media: The Information-Motivation-Behavioral skills framework and TTP video propaganda', advances.in/psychology, 1(1), e486994. Available at: https://doi.org/10.56296/aip00071.

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Jihadi media is typically studied for its narratives and themes; this study frames jihadi media as a behavioral intervention. The Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) model was developed in health psychology to explain behavior change. We apply the IMB framework to a corpus of 44 videos produced by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) between 2009 and 2020 to theorize how Islamist media may lead to behavioral change. Using qualitative content analysis we disambiguate how the TTP inform audiences about the group’s political vision, motivate participation through appeals to religious duty and community identity, and build perceived capacity to act through repeated exposure to jihadi operations. We extend the IMB framework by reconceptualizing the behavioral skills component as vicarious online efficacy transmission, the process by which media consumption strengthens audience beliefs in their capacity to participate in jihad. Intercoder reliability, assessed on 30 independently double-coded videos, was substantial for Motivation and Behavioral Skills (κ =.70 and.78) and moderate for Information (κ =.57). Findings reveal a coherent mobilization strategy that uses anti-democratic framing, Muslim victimhood narratives, and normalization of violence integrated across IMB components, challenging characterizations of the TTP as unsophisticated propagandists. More broadly, the analysis demonstrates that a behavior-change framework can move the study of jihadi media beyond descriptive themes to the mechanism through which propaganda seeks to produce action.

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