No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers
Abstract
For years, scholars have claimed that suicide terrorists are not suicidal, but rather psychologically normal individuals inspired to sacrifice their lives for an ideological cause, due to a range of social and situational factors. I agree that suicide terrorists are shaped by their contexts, as we all are. However, I argue that these scholars went too far. In The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers, I take the opposing view, based on my in-depth analyses of suicide attackers from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North America; attackers who were male, female, young, old, Islamic, and Christian; attackers who carried out the most deadly and the least deadly strikes. I present evidence that in terms of their behavior and psychology, suicide terrorists are much like others who commit conventional suicides, murder-suicides, or unconventional suicides where mental health problems, personal crises, coercion, fear of an approaching enemy, or hidden self-destructive urges play a major role. I also identify critical differences between suicide terrorists and those who have genuinely sacrificed their lives for a greater good. By better understanding suicide terrorists, experts in the brain and behavioral sciences may be able to pioneer exciting new breakthroughs in security countermeasures and suicide prevention. And even more ambitiously, by examining these profound extremes of the human condition, perhaps we can more accurately grasp the power of the human survival instinct among those who are actually psychologically healthy.
... Since the 9/11 attacks, martyrdom has gained an unfortunate association with taking other innocent lives along with one's own. Thus, the recent research interest in martyrdom has been narrowly focused on suicide bombing and its prevention (Lankford, 2014;Speckhard & Akhmedova, 2006;Webber, Chernikova, et al., 2017). Researchers seem to see the impulse to martyrdom as a problem to be solved, and much of the research is geared toward fine-tuning deradicalization programs, seeking to make would-be martyrs less inclined to die for their cause (Kruglanski et al., 2009;Webber & Kruglanski, 2018). ...
... In this case, one does not seek out death at all, but endures it as "unavoidable collateral damage" on the path to a greater common good (Dalferth, 2010).Those who die in this manner have reached Valsala and Menon's (2019) truly altruistic stage. Most previous research has examined Schiller's egotistical (or pseudo-altruistic) variety of martyrdom (Lankford, 2014;Speckhard & Akhmedova, 2006;Webber, Chernikova, et al., 2017). We seek to examine the far more mysterious altruistic martyrs. ...
... In general, we can say that martyrs of all types are not insane, as has been claimed by Lankford (2014). Lankford suggests psychopathology as the major driver of suicide bombings, namely one must be insane to kill oneself and innocent others. ...
This theoretical article briefly explores the historical and modern concept of martyrdom and how it has taken on its current negative connotation due to suicide bombings after 9/11. The paper will review the literature on this more heavily studied form of martyrdom and then distinguish it from the less well-known area of “positive self-sacrifice.” The article asserts that this positive form is exemplified by the behavior of eco-martyrs: people who have given their life to protect the environment from further devastation. The paper will include the case of slain trade union leader and environmental activist Chico Mendes. Chico is an exemplar of the positive self-sacrifice seen in many eco-martyrs. Positive self-sacrifice is defined as prosocial and altruistic actions exhibited by a person who is so fused with their community’s survival that they focus on nothing but the well-being of the community (counterfinality). Since their community’s struggle is tied to an environmental conflict, they abide by an ecological self (humans are not superior to other beings) and over time display evidence of self-actualization and self-transcendence. Eco-martyrs are typically assassinated by the powerful organizations that they have been resisting.
... The departing assumption behind that approach might be formulated in the following way: individual traits, motives and goals matter, of course, when dealing with extremist/terrorizing violence, but they are the obvious targets of forensic psychology (Silke, 2008, Horgan, 2014, Lankford, 2013. Guilt and responsibility assignation require detailed imputations of agency, motivation and degree of participation at the individual level. ...
... By definition, temperamental traits (recurrent personality dispositions) are behind all human attitudes, preferences and choices, and this entails the full range of them including political, religious or other ideological attachments. When dealing, however, with dreadful violent actions required by terrorist campaigns or insurgent fights, scholars have typically resorted to search for "clinical or subclinical personality traits"with rather meager results except for lone-actors and well-studied but isolated cases (Lankford, 2013(Lankford, , 2014Corner and Gill, 2015;Gill and Corner, 2017)-, or putting the wheight on interpersonal and contextual factors which are important but only part of the story. Obaidi et al. (2021) study with ordinary Muslim supporters of Jihad extremism in three European countries and Afghanistan is a valuable addition of fresh data to a field that had neglected an important engine of human action. ...
... From another perspective, Lankford's (2013Lankford's ( , 2014 launched a serious effort to reinstate the relevance of individual factors as precursors of terror killings by gathering detailed forensic analysis of a variety of mental frailties that apparently characterized what he baptized as "self-destructive killers". His portraits included different types of attackers from rampage shooters to suicide bombers mainly from a series of US cases. ...
... Second, mental illness among mass shooters is sometimes underestimated because of inaccurate stereotypes about mental illness itself. Many people believe that having a mental disorder is equivalent to being "crazy" or insane, as if all mental illnesses leave afflicted individuals with constant delusions or hallucinations, which is not remotely accurate (Lankford, 2013). Because of these misconceptions, they would not expect anyone with mental illness to be able to attend school, hold a job, or have a lucid conversation. ...
... A fifth reason for underestimates of mental illness is because some sources rely solely on formal diagnoses. Many shooters have never been formally evaluated-and others intentionally avoid doctors or conceal their mental health problems due to shame or stigma-so there is often a large discrepancy between the proportion of perpetrators who are diagnosed and the proportion who exhibit signs or symptoms (Lankford, 2013(Lankford, , 2016. For example, the United States Secret Service found that only 17% of rampage school shooters from 1974 to 2000 had been diagnosed with a mental or behavior disorder, but 61% had a documented history of feeling extremely depressed or desperate and 78% had a history of suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts (Vossekuil et al., 2004). ...
... This study has several important limitations. First, although the highest standard of evidence for a mental disorder is a formal diagnosis, many perpetrators have never been formally evaluated by a psychiatrist or mental health practitioner (Vossekuil et al., 2004), and others deliberately avoid doctors, conceal their mental health problems, or lie about their symptoms due to shame, stigma, or fear of other consequences (Lankford, 2013(Lankford, , 2016. As a result, this study had the challenge of attempting to accurately estimate the prevalence of mental illness among people who may not have wanted to be accurately counted. ...
... Thus, we explored whether individuals with extremist inclinations might be described as having tendencies in a pathological direction, but at "pre-diagnostic" levels. Emotionality encompasses greater anxiety and it has been linked to greater risk of depression (Roncero, Fornés, García-Soriano & Belloch, 2014) which, in turn, has been argued to underpin suicide terrorism (Lankford, 2014). In contrast, others have claimed that emotionally instable individuals do not make good (suicide) terrorists because they would be a liability to the cause and as result, they are weeded out by the recruiters (McDonald, 2013). ...
... As for the negative relationship between emotionality and violent intentions, it has implications for the literature on the ongoing characterization of those committing violence as mentally ill (e.g., Lankford, 2014). High emotionality is associated with mental problems related to anxiety and depression, and suicidal inclinations (e.g., Roncero et al., 2014). ...
... High emotionality is associated with mental problems related to anxiety and depression, and suicidal inclinations (e.g., Roncero et al., 2014). Some have argued that such problems explain why some people become terrorists (Lankford, 2014, but see McDonald, 2013. The findings of the current research seemingly contradict that notion, instead indicating that Muslims endorsing violence on behalf of their group are less emotional than the average person. ...
Many early explanations for violent extremism focused on clinical dispositions, withpoor empirical support. In the current work, we argued that violent extremists might be “normal” in a clinical sense while nonetheless bearing certain personality signatures. Results from five studies among four general population of Muslims and a sample of former Mujahideen suggest that both violent and non-violent behavioral intentions among European Muslims and Muslims in the Middle East are predicted by basic personality traits. Results from individual studies and a meta-analysis showed that more violent intentions were related to lower altruism, lower openness to experience, and lower emotionality, whereas more non-violent intentions were primarily related to higher altruism. When substituting non-violent intentions with actual behaviors the results were similar, suggesting that the findings are not merely self-report artefacts. Finally, the violent intention effects were consistent across the three European countries (e.g., Belgium, Denmark and Sweden) that provided the most foreign fighters to Islamic State per capita. Overall, the personality model explained 11% of the individual differences in non-violent and 27% of the violent intentions.
... Reality TV shows are filled with many people who seem happy to engage in immoral and illicit behavior as long as they get to be seen on television (Lankford, 2016b). And social media has become a competitive battlefield for people who will say or post anything to get noticed (Lankford, 2013;Rossi & Rubera, 2018). Even the president of the United States has suggested that he subscribes to the axiom that "all press is good press." ...
... And much like perpetrators who want fame for themselves, these ideologically driven attackers often recognize that killing innocent people will garner substantial media attention. Findings from prior research, however, have indicated that these two types may often overlap (Lankford, 2013(Lankford, , 2018b. Some public mass shooters, including the Columbine shooters and the Virginia Tech shooter, have expressed radical ideologies despite having no formal connection to an extremist group. ...
... Some public mass shooters, including the Columbine shooters and the Virginia Tech shooter, have expressed radical ideologies despite having no formal connection to an extremist group. Conversely, some ideologically driven attackers have sought fame or attention for themselves, in addition to the attention they hoped to bring to their cause (Kruglanski, Chen, Dechesne, Fishman, & Orehek, 2009;Lankford, 2013Lankford, , 2018b. In fact, terrorist organizations have often marketed the opportunity to be a "martyr" as a way for people who struggled in life to create a powerful legacy (Hoffman, 2006;Lankford, 2013;Pedahzur, 2005). ...
Research Summary: Public mass shootings in the United States have become substantially more deadly over time. We document this increase, offer a model to explain it, review supporting evidence for the model, and present new findings on offenders from 1966 to 2019. It appears that societal changes have led to more public mass shooters who are motivated to kill large numbers of victims for fame or attention, as well as to more shooters who have been directly influenced by previous attackers. They often spend extended time planning their attacks and are increasingly likely to acquire powerful weapons and develop specific strategies to enhance their lethality. Policy Implications: New policies should be aimed at addressing the aforementioned factors. For instance, the deadliest public mass shooters' desires for fame and attention might be countered by a change in media coverage policies. Additionally, the deadliest perpetrators' lengthy planning periods have been associated with more warning signs being reported to police, so that type of information could justify denying many potential attackers access to firearms through extreme risk protection orders and red flag laws.
... There are other reasons a person might prioritize a goal above all others, such as social coercion or mental health problems (see, for example, the pressures influencing some suicide terrorists: Lankford, 2014). Our account neither requires that such extreme behavior is common p. 11 nor makes a strong claim about which process generates the behavior. ...
... Second, people might engage in self-sacrifice for reasons distinct from their ideological commitment (Klonsky et al., 2016). They might suffer from psychiatric illness (Lankford 2014; although see Atran 2014) or use suicidal behavior for interpersonal bargaining or to lessen a burden on their families (Syme et al., 2016). Or, as is more likely, the glory of martyrdom may be so enticing that people are willing to die for it (Sageman, 2008). ...
Principled behavior seems to defy evolutionary logic. Principled people consistently abide by their principles, ignore tradeoffs or compromises, and pursue the principles for transcendental reasons, such as that they are "right", decreed by God, or part of an eternal debt to the emperor. Here, we explain principled behavior as a combination of what we call "committed agents" and "impersonators". Committed agents are individuals whose extreme psychology compels them to never deviate from a maxim and who are especially trustworthy for it. Imitators non-consciously masquerade as committed agents to garner trust. Given that observers can only determine whether a person is genuinely committed on the basis of their behavior, impersonators must appear to never deviate from the maxim, never think about deviating, pursue the maxim for the reason motivating committed agents, and justify ambiguous or compromising decision as conforming to the principle. We use this account to explain key features of principled behavior as well as seemingly unrelated phenomena, including cognitive dissonance, foot-in-the-door effects, moral licensing, sacred values, the expanding moral circle, and beliefs in supernatural punishment. Principled behavior consists of the behavior of rare extreme individuals and strategic attempts by others to pass as them.
... Another line of research relies on biographical data derived from public sources to assess the prevalence of established suicide risk factors among suicide terrorists. Using this approach, Lankford (2013b) found clues of suicide risk 70 factors in nearly 130 suicide terrorists around the world: including, depressive disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder or other associated mental disorders, the death of a spouse or loved one, or negative catalyst events. In another study focusing on the United States from 1990to 2010, Lankford (2013a compared the characteristics of suicide terrorists and rampage, workplace and school shooters, 75 generally associated with mental disorders (Langman, 2009(Langman, , 2013. ...
... 26 ecological fallacy. 23 But given existing micro evidence from Study 1 and previous studies on different geographical locations (Merari et al., 2009;Speckhard & Ahkmedova, 2006;Lankford, 2013b), it is likely that this macro association reflects the fact that suicide terrorists are suicidal. ...
The self-sacrifice of suicide terrorists is subject to sophisticated models of altruistic sacrifice. Yet, a simpler account is that it reflects common suicidal tendencies. This paper offers new micro and macro evidence supportive of this hypothesis. Study 1 compared a sample of suicide and non-suicide terrorists in the United States from 1948 to 2017. Results indicated that suicide terrorists were more likely to display various established suicidal risk factors including history of child abuse, absent parent/s and relationship troubles. Study 2 took advantage of the cross-national variations in suicidal tendencies to explain the incidence of suicide and non-suicide terrorist attacks worldwide from 1991 to 2014. Results revealed that countries with higher share of deaths from suicide displayed higher incidences of suicide attacks but similar incidences of non-suicide attacks. The decision of some terrorists to sacrifice their life may well have been subject to over-theorization.
... I have done that research. Most volunteer suicide terrorists decide they want to die before they join the group: they were community members who barely knew other terrorists, let alone "fused" with them (Lankford 2013;2014a;2015). Groups like the 9/11 hijackers are the exception, but even if some of them bonded closely with each other, the notion that they were dying for the group makes no sense, because they all perished, so none of them benefited. ...
... Furthermore, many of Whitehouse's examples were actually responding to coercion (Lankford 2013;2014a;Merari 2010;Ohnuki-Tierney 2007). The United Nations has reported that ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, and other terrorist groups have kidnapped, sexually assaulted, beaten, and threatened victims before forcing them to commit suicide bombings. ...
We seek strength in numbers as a survival strategy, so it seems unlikely that social bonds would make us want to intentionally die. However, our deep desire to be protected may explain our attraction to exaggerated notions of intentional self-sacrifice – even though research on suicide terrorists, kamikaze pilots, and cult members suggests they were not actually dying for their group.
... I have done that research. Most volunteer suicide terrorists decide they want to die before they join the group: they were community members who barely knew other terrorists, let alone "fused" with them (Lankford 2013;2014a;. Groups like the 9/11 hijackers are the exception, but even if some of them bonded closely with each other, the notion that they were dying for the group makes no sense, because they all perished, so none of them benefited. ...
... Furthermore, many of Whitehouse's examples were actually responding to coercion (Lankford 2013;2014a;Merari 2010;Ohnuki-Tierney 2007). The United Nations has reported that ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, and other terrorist groups have kidnapped, sexually assaulted, beaten, and threatened victims before forcing them to commit suicide bombings. ...
Whitehouse adapts insights from evolutionary anthropology to interpret extreme self-sacrifice through the concept of identity fusion. The model neglects the role of normative systems in shaping behaviors, especially in relation to violent extremism. In peaceful groups, increasing fusion will actually decrease extremism. Groups collectively appraise threats and opportunities, actively debate action options, and rarely choose violence toward self or others.
... Sometimes they are simply individual acts, as in the Columbine massacre (whose perpetrators originally planned to blow themselves up using explosives rather than opening fire with small arms). 20 These incidents are referred to as 'lone wolf' attacks. These incidents do not typically represent a tactical use of suicide bombing as part of a campaign, and from a policy and analytical point of view it is better to approach them separately. ...
AOAV’s extensive report Understanding the rising cult of the suicide bomber investigates what makes individuals give their lives, and take others, for causes propagated by these transnational terrorist groups.
It also looks at what effect such attacks have had on local and regional conflicts, as well as on the communities exposed to them.
Furthermore, the report proposes how states and other actors in the international community might seek to prevent their use and further escalation based on the reports’ findings.
The report is based on extensive field-work, as well as a thorough mapping and investigation of specific suicide bombings and the individuals that perpetrated them.
... Bossarte et al. (2006) find a history of legal problems (25%) or financial problems (9%) may also contribute to homicide-suicide. Lankford (2013) finds these family and professional problems were common among mass public shooters. In consideration of incidents, research finds the overwhelming weapon of choice of homicide-suicide perpetrators was a firearm (Eliason, 2009;Malphurs & Cohen, 2002). ...
This study provides an in‐depth analysis of American mass public shooting conclusions between 1966 and 2017. Specifically, this work examines differences in factors contributing to the perpetrator's likelihood of surviving, being killed, and committing suicide. Ten hypotheses, rooted in previous homicide, suicide, homicide‐suicide, and mass public shooting literature consider different psychological, situational, and background factors shaping the outcome of mass public shootings. Significant findings indicate factors influencing perpetrators' suicide include suicidal ideation, higher victim counts, and suicide copycat effects. Factors influencing perpetrators being killed similarly include higher victim counts, the arrival of law enforcement, lethal/non‐lethal resistance, and government targets. This investigation provides practical implications for practitioners and policymakers, especially law enforcement and mental health practitioners, seeking to develop intervention and prevention strategies for addressing suicidal ideation and its most lethal outcome: mass public shootings.
... Third, it is important to recognize that whenever people are asked about their thoughts or motives, they can lie. This is a challenge for both direct and indirect assessments (Lankford, 2013). Because Dahmer indicated that he still had the same compulsions and would probably keep killing if he were released, however, his statements fit the "admission Table 4. Comparing Dahmer's behaviors to the iCD-11's criteria for compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD). ...
Could serial killing be addictive? Although scholars have discussed this possibility before, it has not been rigorously tested. The present study closely examines Jeffrey Dahmer’s statements and behavior to assess whether they fit the American Psychiatric Association’s criteria for addiction and the International Classification of Diseases’s criteria for compulsive sexual behavior disorder or a paraphilic disorder. Findings suggest that Dahmer’s actions were consistent with a strong behavioral addiction, and that their escalation in frequency and severity over time—despite growing risks to the “user”—constitute a textbook example of an addict’s efforts to increase doses or dosage to maintain a neurochemical “high.” If serial killing and the experiences associated with it (e.g., fulfillment of sexual paraphilias, desires for control, etc.) can be addictive, that could have important implications for how we understand other potentially addictive crimes—like those committed by kleptomaniacs, pyromaniacs, and serial sexual offenders. It could also inform clinicians’ understandings of how they can help individuals with dangerous and compulsive urges avoid escalating to extreme violence.
... Others have linked narcissism with sensation-seeking and risk-taking (e.g., Vazire and Funder, 2006), which Lankford (2013) argued are typical among terrorists that seek to conduct the most "daring and elaborate" attacks (e.g., suicide terrorism, p. 147). Some researchers have uncovered even more direct links between sensation-seeking and one's predilection for extremist activity. ...
Terrorism researchers have long discussed the role of psychology in the radicalization process. This work has included research on the respective roles of individual psychological traits and responses to terrorist propaganda. Unfortunately, much of this work has looked at psychological traits and responses to propaganda individually and has not considered how these factors may interact. This study redresses this gap in the literature. In this experiment (N = 268), participants were measured in terms of their narcissism, Machiavellianism, subclinical psychopathy, and everyday sadism—collectively called the Dark Tetrad. Participants were then exposed to a vivid or nonvivid terrorist narrative (or a control message). Results indicate that Machiavellianism interacts with both narrative exposure and narrative vividness to amplify the persuasive effect of terrorist narratives. Neither narcissism, subclinical psychopathy, nor everyday sadism had such an effect. These results highlight the importance of considering the psychological traits of audiences when evaluating proclivity for radicalization via persuasion by terrorist narratives.
... Self-sacrifice and martyrdom has been explicitly used in almost all religions and is aggressively exploited by terrorist outfits who groom suicide bombers using the ideology of Islamist martyrdom (Atran, 2003). Some have argued that suicide bombers may actually be clinically suicidal and attempting to escape personal impasse (Lankford, 2013). In grooming young impressionable adolescents, extremist organisations brainwash these adolescents into believing that the ultimate self-sacrifice by suicide bombing will elevate their stature in the eyes of God and send them straight to heaven. ...
... He falls in love with himself and, realizing that his love would not be reciprocated, he either drowns in the pond trying to embrace the image, or melts away from the fire of passion burning inside him. The moral of the story is that falling in love with one's own self-image is destructive in other parts of one's life, and it could leave one frightened or disgusted, to the detriment both oneself and others (Lankford, 2014). ...
»Bioetika, umjetnost i mediji« zbornik je radova nastao na temelju Studentskih bioetičkih radionica pod nazivom »Bioetika i masovni mediji« te »Umjetnost i moral« održanih na 17. i 18. Lošinjskim danima bioetike. U zborniku se nalaze idući radovi:
Bernard Špoljarić, »Perspektive i izazovi satire u masovnim medijima«
Bruno Dronjić, Monika Ivanović, »Analiza recepcije Istanbulske konvencije u medijima – problem izostavljenosti teorijskog razmatranja«
Matej Malčić Pirin, »Ideologija kao moralni narcizam«
Sara Večeralo, »Etika i estetika u djelu Oscara Wildea«
Ivana Šešlek, »Razumijevanje bioetičkih problema posredstvom umjetnosti na primjeru romana Sanjaju li androidi električne ovce?«
Ana Medić, »Estetička i (bio)etička dimenzija interaktivnih medija – istraživanje na primjeru računalnih igara Fallout 4 i Dragon Age«
Zorica Mijartović, »Bioetika između znanstvene fantastike i realnosti na primjeru odabranih znanstvenofantastičnih filmova«
Teo Čavar, »Analiza pojave nacionalističkog superjunaka u stripu«
Marija Puđak, »Formacija habitusa i devijantnost – distinktivan um umjetnika«
David Martić, »U ritmu glazbe – utjecaj glazbe na djelovanje«
Luka Draganić, »Pravo – umjetnost oblikovanja i umijeće provođenja morala«
Josip Periša, »Što marksistička filozofija ima reći o književnosti?«
Matej Trojačanec, »The Lives of Clones«
Impresum
Izdavač: Udruženje studenata filozofije
Za izdavača: Ana Daria Bokan
Glavna urednica: Matija Vigato
Redaktura: Jan Defrančeski, Marko Ferber, Štefanija Kožić
Grafička urednica: Dora Ernoić
Dizajn naslovnice: Dora Ernoić
Lektura i korektura: Jan Defrančeski
Lektura engleskog jezika: Arjeta Hodža
Recenzenti: Luka Perušić, Marija Selak
... Accordingly, hunger and sleep deprivation are almost never cited as modern causes of crime. But there are clear examples in which sex offenders, serial killers, mass murderers, and terrorists have specifically cited sexual frustration as a reason for their actions (Blanchard, 1995;Bryden & Grier, 2011;Cottee, 2021;Hoffman, Ware, & Shapiro, 2020;Kanin, 1985;Lankford, 2013;Masters, 1993;Stevens, 1995). It seems unlikely that sexual frustration only influences sex offending and extreme violence, but not more commonplace crimes that similarly involve anger, jealousy, risk-taking, low selfcontrol, or lack of empathy for one's victims. ...
Background: Sexual frustration is a common experience for many people; it is one of the biggest frustrations in some individuals' lives; and it has been cited as a cause of immoral behavior for centuries. However, it does not feature prominently in any leading criminological theories. Methods: This review builds on findings from frustration-aggression, strain, self-control, and sexual selection theories—along with research on a wide range of sexual and non-sexual behaviors—to propose an overarching sexual frustration theory of aggression, violence, and crime. Findings: Sexual frustration is not only a problem for those who are “involuntarily celibate”; it also affects many people who are sexually active. Frustration arising from unfulfilled desires to have sex, unavailable partners, and unsatisfying sexual activities appears to increase the risks of aggression, violence, and crime associated with relief-seeking, power-seeking, revenge-seeking, and displaced frustration. Conclusion: Although sexual frustration does not provide a sufficient explanation for aggression, violence, or crime on its own, understanding its influence on behavior is important. Specific recommendations are offered to facilitate theory-testing and future research.
... [185] He has identified more than 130 individual suicide terrorists, including 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta, with classic suicidal risk factors such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, other mental health problems, drug addictions, serious physical injuries or disabilities, or having suffered the unexpected death of a loved one or from other personal crises. [186] A study of the remains of 110 suicide bombers in Afghanistan for the first part of 2007 by Afghan pathologist Dr. Yusef Yadgari found 80% were suffering from physical ailments such as missing limbs (before the blasts), cancer, or leprosy. Also, in contrast to earlier findings of suicide bombers, the Afghan bombers were "not celebrated like their counterparts in other Arab nations. ...
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually involving an explosion, in which attackers accept their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout history, often as part of a military campaign (as with the Japanese kamikaze pilots of 1944-1945 during World War II), and more recently as part of terrorist campaigns (such as the September 11 attacks in 2001). ***** For archiving purpose only *****
... A drug dealer and user, he consumed heroin, cocaine, and alcohol even though he was Muslim. He had also served time in prison for murder and been in legal trouble on numerous occasions.47 He was a suicide bomber in the Madrid bombing of March 2004. ...
In the Islamic hadith corpus and Quran, the way to atone for sins is called tawba (or tawbah), which requires one to complete a series of steps to receive forgiveness from Allah (God). Jihadist terrorist organizations use primarily Quranic scripture to recruit and employ suicide bombers who may have a guilty conscience for their past sins. It is said that martyrdom, or istishadi, will automatically save Muslims from hell and grant access to paradise no matter the sin committed. One of the understudied reasons for istishadi suicide bombings in jihadist groups is the concept of atonement. This article answers the following research questions: What role does guilt in Islam play in the motivations for male and female Sunni jihadist suicide bombers, and why is tawba not utilized?
... Excitement/exhilaration (Ajil, 2019;Bartlett & Miller, 2012;Haggerty & Bucerius, 2018;J. E. Stern, 2014;Wolfowicz et al., 2019), gratitude (Ajil, 2019), pride (Baugut & Neumann, 2019;Cottee & Hayward, 2011;Haggerty & Bucerius, 2018;Ilardi, 2013;Khalil et al., 2019;Meadowcroft & Morrow, 2017;Post et al., 2003), admiration (Ajil, 2019;Baugut & Neumann, 2019), contempt (Milla et al., 2013;Pfundmair et al., 2019;Simi & Futrell, 2009, p. 93), and shame (Lankford, 2014;Sageman, 2008) transpire as essential aspects of the experiences reported by radicalized individuals when they had to deal with those relevant behavioral choices we have highlighted above (cooperation, action alone, skirting, and general passivity). ...
Our model of radicalization articulates three readings of the phenomenon: (1) the rationality of the radicalized agent, (2) the prime mover explaining important facets of the phenomena, and (3) the strategic typification of concerns for the persuasion of wider audiences. We show that the rationality of the radicalized agent can be characterized as the calibration of specific parameters that determines a modality of thought, the R.A.S.H. mentality, which accounts for essential aspects of the radicalized mind. We propose further to reorient the causal arrow that has been privileged in the models of radicalization so far by linking radicalization to the experience of envy, an evolved emotion that motivates individuals to monitor their surroundings, to assess the prosperity of others, and to seek the elimination of differences. We conclude with the process of typification, which consists in widening the reach of concerns by simultaneously eliminating the particulars of the personal situation motivating the radicalized agent and evoking collective circumstance templates belonging to a repertoire of universal social forms.
... Also Lankford (2014) concludes in a research among 130 suicide terrorists that about half of them had been confronted beforehand with the death of a close friend. Also Buijs and colleagues (2006) and Weggemans, Bakker and Grol (2014) mention death as a possible trigger factor. ...
... Merari reports that he found significantly higher percentages of diagnosed avoidant-dependent personality disorder, suicidal tendencies, and depressive symptoms in his in-depth study of fifteen would-be suicide bombers (Merari, 2010). Likewise, Lankford has argued that suicide terrorists are much closer to people who commit conventional suicides, murdersuicides, or unconventional suicides, especially in regard to the extent of mental health problems, personal crises, coercion, fear of an approaching enemy, or hidden selfdestructive urges (Lankford, 2014). ...
In recent years, extreme right-wing militancy and terrorism have increasingly become the major source of violent attacks, killings, and threats in many Western countries. Yet, the characteristics and logic of right-wing terrorism remain poorly understood. One aspect virtually unexplored is the apparent lack of suicide terror tactics within far-right terrorism. Suicide terrorism has been attributed mainly to religious and ethno-separatist terrorist organizations. This article explores the contemporary extreme right’s stance toward suicide, self-sacrifice, and martyrdom at the ideological, strategic, and subcultural levels through historic references to martyrdom in Nazi Germany and post WWII far-right movements, as well as extreme right strategic manuals and ideological manifestos. In sum, this article argues that the extreme right is unlikely to use suicide attack tactics in the narrow sense since its own distinct sacrificial martyrdom mythology based on ideological steadfastness and a hypermasculine warrior identity of fighting until defeat incentivizes different types of attacks involving suicide, such as murder-suicides or mass shootings.
... In fact, public mass shooters often make suicidal threats or attempts prior to their attacks (Silver, Simons, and Craun 2018), and a significant portion kill themselves before law enforcement even confronts them at the scene (Blair and Schweit 2014). By contrast, terrorist groups, armed militias, rebel movements, and paramilitary organizations are almost entirely composed of people who want to fight and survive (Hoffman 1998;Lankford 2013). According to START (2020), less than 1.3 percent of all terrorist attacks involving firearms are committed by perpetrators who intended or expected to die. 3 And in Lott and Moody's dataset, only 0.3 percent of the incidents they included from outside the United States were coded affirmatively for suicide. ...
Public mass shootings have traumatized Americans for more than fifty years, while similar incidents seem to have been extremely rare in other countries. Several years ago, I conducted a cross-national study which found that the United States had 30.8 percent of all public mass shooters from 1966–2012, despite having less than five percent of the world’s population (Lankford 2016). Unfortunately, John Lott and Carlisle Moody (2019; 2020) have created a great deal of confusion with their recent claims, which grossly underestimate the United States’ global share of public mass shootings. Here I explain: (1) why analyzing public mass shootings and other types of attacks as a single form of violence is as flawed as claiming that tornadoes and hurricanes are a single type of storm; (2) how readers can sort Lott and Moody’s dataset to more accurately estimate the United States’ global share of public mass shootings; (3) how Lott and Moody misrepresent approximately 1,000 foreign cases from their own dataset, and what the corrected figures actually show; and (4) why readers should think twice about trusting Lott and Moody’s claims. My original study’s findings have now been confirmed by multiple replications, with various approaches, using Lott and Moody’s own data.
... У последњих неколико година дошло је и до прогресивног развоја у расправи о религији и тероризму, али и до неслагања између аутора. Једни сматрају да религија не утиче на политичко насиље (Zalman, 2019;Hansen, 2015;Fraser, 2015), а други признају да религија помаже у мотивацији бораца и регрутацији нових, али указују да облик и количина насиља зависе првенствено од нерелигијских фактора (Harmon et al., 2018;Tarlow, 2017;Lankford, 2014;Pape, 2006). Трећи указују на организационе и мотивационе карактеристике група које уз религију доводе до тешког насиља (Hutchins, 2017;Brannan, 2013;Juergensmeyer, 2003). ...
... While mass shootings and acts of terrorism sometimes have many commonalities, acts of terrorism should still be considered as a separate category of intentional harm to others, mainly due to differences in underlying motivations. Further, any terrorist organizations behind the attack might provide rationalizations for violence, choose targets, and even provide equipment (Lankford, 2014), which is not applicable to most mass shootings. There is a small corpus of research which suggests imitation effects for terrorist acts specifically. ...
Objective
Media recommendations for the reporting of events where one person or a small group kills multiple others in public settings have been developed recently by suicide prevention experts. Evidence on the effects of reports that are compliant or noncompliant with these recommendations is lacking.
Methods
We conducted a randomized controlled trial with n = 148 participants who were randomly assigned to read newspaper articles (A) on acts of terrorism assumed to be conducted by Islamist terrorists and not consistent with media recommendations, (B) the same articles differing only in their compliance with recommendations, or (C) articles of similar style that were about homicide. Islamophobia as well as suicidal ideation, stress, and mood were measured before reading the article (T1), immediately afterwards (T2), and one week later (T3). The primary hypothesis was that there is an increase in islamophobia after exposure to media portrayals not consistent with media recommendations.
Results
Compared to the control group, only participants reading media reports that were not consistent with media recommendations showed a short‐term increase in islamophobia.
Conclusion
These findings suggest that reporting on terrorism that is not consistent with media recommendations appears to increase islamophobia. In the context of reporting on Islamist terrorism, consistency with recommendations might help reduce negative attitudes toward Muslim minorities.
... Scholars and policymakers have long sought to determine what drives people to give their lives to a cause. Traditional explanations, based on rational choice theory [25] or mental abnormality [26] have largely failed to explain what motivates the members of extremist groups have since World War II, on average, persisted and often prevailed with as little as ten times less firepower and manpower than the state armies and police forces that mainly rely on material incentives and disincentives such as pay, promotion, and punishment [27]. But Clapper was wrong to suggest the will to fight is imponderable. ...
The aim and effect of transnational terrorism today – stemming from both Islamic
revivalism and ethno-nationalist resurgence – is to fragment social consensus by
forcing people into opposing camps, with no room for innocents. Governments and
peoples wrestle with why this is happening and what to do. At issue here: Can social
science, specifically psychology, be helpful? A partial answer focuses on recent
contributions from behavioral and brain studies into how “devoted actors,” committed to
non-negotiable “sacred values” and the groups those values are embedded in, resort
to extreme violence and resist rational-actor approaches to conflict resolution when
opposing values are involved. Alternatives approaches emphasize reckoning with
sacred values rather than disregarding them, and social counter-engagement instead
of reliance on socially-disembodied counter-narratives.
... But as the phrase "mass shooting" has grown in popularity (Roeder, 2016), so have the efforts to define it. In addition to entities such as the Gun Violence Archive, Everytown for Gun Safety, Mass Shooting Tracker, USA Today, and Mother Jones, several researchers (Krause & Richardson, 2015;Lankford, 2013;Schildkraut & Elsass, 2016) have each developed their own distinct mass shooting definitions. These definitions vary on the basis of the number of victims shot (fatally or nonfatally), the number of victims killed, the location where the shooting took place, the motive for the shooting, whether the manner in which the victims were shot was indiscriminate, and whether the offender is included as one of the victims in the event he or she committed suicide or was killed by police (i.e., suicide by cop). ...
Research Summary
Mass shootings have been identified as a novel American crime problem. The term is merely a new name, however, for an older crime problem—mass murder. The social construction of the mass shooting and mass murder problems have both been driven by “mass public shootings”—incidents that occur in the absence of other criminal activity (e.g., robberies, drug deals, and gang “turf wars”) in which a gun was used to kill four or more victims at a public location within a 24‐hour period. Using data on 845 mass shootings, including 158 mass public shootings, which occurred in the United States between 1976 and 2018, in this study, I analyze trends in their prevalence and severity (i.e., number of victims killed and wounded). After controlling for growth in the U.S. population, the results show the late 1980s and early 1990s had the highest incidence of mass shootings. Both the incidence and severity of mass public shootings, on the other hand, have increased over the last decade. I also describe the patterns of mass public shootings by reporting incident and offender characteristics.
Policy Implications
Despite the recent growth in mass public shootings, the infrequency with which they occur makes it very challenging to develop broad measures that will reduce their incidence or severity. It may therefore be more effective to focus on strategies that that have shown promise in decreasing violence in general.
... To Scott Atran (2003Atran ( , 2014, this objection is particularly relevant to critically evaluate individualistic explanations of suicide terrorism. In response to Lankford's (2014) view that suicide terrorists suffer from personality disorders and show suicidal tendencies, Atran (2014) states that Lankford's claims "manifest a form of fundamental attribution error", which he characterises as a tendency "to overestimate effects of personality and underestimate situational effects in explaining social behaviour" (2014: p. 362). By contrast to individualistic explanations, Atran and his colleagues argue that typical suicide terrorists lack diagnosable psychological anomalies and are incentivised to commit acts of violence (Atran 2003;Atran et al. 2014). ...
Research seeking to explain the perpetration of violence and atrocities by humans against other humans offers both social and individualistic explanations, which differ namely in the roles attributed to empathy. Prominent social models suggest that some manifestations of inter-human violence are caused by parochial attitudes (attitudes characterized by interests centred on one's own community) and obedience reinforced by within-group empathy. Individualistic explanations of violence, by contrast, posit that stable intra-individual characteristics of the brain and personality of some individuals lead them to commit violence and atrocities. An individualistic explanation argues that the chief cause of violence is the perpetrator's lack of empathy with the victim. To offer the rudiments of critique of the individualistic approach, the author critically examines a model stating that violence is caused by empathy erosion (Baron-Cohen 2011). Specifically, the discussion 2 of the empathy-erosion model is applied to the case of honour-based violence (HBV), a type of violence known for its communal character. Building from prior enquiries into violence and social cognition, it is argued that an empathy-erosion explanation of HBV is defective because it does not consider important cultural and historical enablers of violence. Finally, as an alternative to individualism, a psychohistorical approach to HBV in the migration context is proposed. This alternative combines psychological and philosophical enquiry with historical and ethnographical analysis. The psychohistorical approach hypothesises that distinct processes of cultural learning of honour codes both scaffold HBV and modulate the perpetrators' emotions and empathy.
... First, psychological studies suggest that in general, people who prioritize extrinsic goals, such as fame, image, or money, are at a higher risk of struggling with anxiety, narcissism, and depression (Kasser & Ryan, 1993, 1996Nickerson, Schwarz, Diener, & Kahneman, 2003;Lankford, 2016). Second, people who are desperate for fame or attention -or who care far too much about their "public" image -may be more susceptible to a range of unhealthy behaviors, both directed inward (e.g., eating disorders, self-harm, and suicide) and outward (e.g., cyberbullying, public aggression towards competitors, crime, and violence) ( Hawk et al., 2019;Lankford, 2013Lankford, , 2016Maltby et al., 2001;Sheridan et al., 2007). ...
Some psychologists consider attention seeking to be one of the most common goals of misbehavior by young people, and it can have many unhealthy consequences. Currently, however, so many Americans use the internet and social media to seek fame or attention that it may be difficult to know when intervention is necessary. This study examines the pre-attack statements and behaviors of 11 fame-seeking mass shooters and active shooters in the United States. The findings clarify which personal struggles and sources of pain these individuals commonly referenced, along with their frequency of making concerning internet/social media posts and having criminal records or histories of legal problems. Our results may guide Behavioral Intervention Teams and other concerned parties' assessments of when someone poses a serious threat. We also provide specific recommendations for how to steer fame-and attention-seeking individuals in healthier directions, particularly in the early stages of intervention.
... One recent claim concerning an individual psychological motivation for suicide bombing comes from Lankford (2011Lankford ( , 2014. He argues that suicide bombers demonstrate psychological tendencies associated with suicide, although difficulties in finding enough evidence to actually psychologically evaluate suicide bombers post hoc makes drawing inferences difficult. ...
How do we know whether judges of different backgrounds are biased? We review the substantial political science literature on judicial decision making, paying close attention to how judges' demographics and ideology can influence or structure their decision making. As the research demonstrates, characteristics such as race, ethnicity, and gender can sometimes predict judicial decision making in limited kinds of cases; however, the literature also suggests that these characteristics are far less important in shaping or predicting outcomes than is ideology (or partisanship), which in turn correlates closely with gender, race, and ethnicity. This leads us to conclude that assuming judges of different backgrounds are biased because they rule differently is questionable. Given that the application of the law rarely provides one objectively correct answer, it is no surprise that judges' decisions vary according to their personal backgrounds and, more importantly, according to their ideology.
... REPLY TO LOTT AND MOODY VOLUME 16, NUMBER 1, MARCH 2019 Lott and Moody (2019, 46-49) then discuss what they call "magnets," suggesting that in the United States, dangerous individuals attack alone, but outside the United States, dangerous individuals are drawn to join groups before attacking. This is certainly true in some cases, and Lott and Moody cite my own research (Lankford 2013) as a source of the idea. The shape of violence varies across cultures, and individuals may be more prone to seek assistance or support in some contexts than in others. ...
Public mass shooters almost always attack alone; this is common knowledge and has been consistently shown in previous research. Unfortunately, John Lott and Carlisle Moody ignore this fact. They include many forms of group violence in their analyses, such as massacres by hundreds of members of the Lord’s Resistance Army, and group attacks by soldiers, uniformed troops, paramilitary fighters, armed rebels, and terrorist organizations. Back in 2015, Lott claimed he cared about making fair comparisons with American mass shootings; now he has abandoned that pretense. As a result, Lott and Moody’s findings merely clarify what does not explain the type of mass shootings the United States does not have, anyway. Fortunately, Lott and Moody’s own data speak the truth they deny. They show that from 1998–2012, the United States had more than six times its global share of public mass shooters who attacked alone, and more than any other continent except Asia. This constitutes an independent replication and confirmation of similar findings from Lankford (2016) and several other scholars. Although Lott and Moody claim that America’s disproportionate mass shooting problem has nothing to do with its world-leading firearm ownership rate, so far that is the only explanation that has been empirically demonstrated.
... Generalno promatrano, terorizam u svim svojim pojavnostima dokazuje i povezanost kulture i nacionalne/međunarodne sigurnosti, terorizam ima kulturološku dimenziju. Utjecajne studije samoubilački terorizam tretiraju kao strateško sredstvo za ostvarenje političkih ciljeva (Pape i Feldman 2010) ili se pak dokazuje da dispozicijski faktori utječu više nego situacijski (Lankford 2014). Kulturni aspekti u tim su studijama zanemareni. ...
The contemporary definition of security and security studies encompasses the following fields: military, politics, society, economics and environment. Despite its significant expansion and deepening, the fields of culture and cultural studies have remained beyond the systemic interest of the security studies and national security policy. Unlike the period of the Cold War when culture was completely ignored in security discussions and practices, in the Post-Cold War context it was given a part within the area of societal security albeit negligible one. Abundance of empirical evidence on the role of culture as one of the decisive factors in drafting and implementing security strategies, iconoclasm and conflicts with the cultural (identity) dimension provides sufficient reason to position culture differently within security activities and include it in security studies. The paper analyzes the relationship between culture and national security and puts forward the arguments in support of the assertion that culture is very much relevant to the national security. There are three general levels of observation: the effect of culture on national security definition and the decision making process in the area of national security (national security culture), culture as a distinct area of national security and culture as a threat target.
... Nevertheless, those who argue that suicide terrorism is a result of pathology, may not regard such behavior as an act of self-sacrifice at all. For example, Lankford (2014) has argued that jihadist martyrs may simply be suicidal individuals (see also Merari 2010) who choose this method of killing themselves because it is socially approved and even glorified by the groups they identify with, while also providing conveniently reliable methods (e.g. fatal explosive devices). ...
Whitehouse's focus on two causes of identity fusion (evolution and shared experiences/biology) deepens understanding of these specific topics. While we applaud his analysis, in his efforts to elaborate these two causes, he has – perhaps unavoidably – produced a narrower conceptualization of identity fusion. This is unfortunate because it undermines his stated goal of developing a more general, encompassing theory.
Islam is the only biblical religion that still practices animal sacrifice. Indeed, every year more than a million animals are shipped to Mecca from all over the world to be slaughtered during the Muslim Hajj. This multi-disciplinary volume is the first to examine the physical foundations of this practice and the significance of the ritual. Brannon Wheeler uses both textual analysis and various types of material evidence to gain insight into the role of animal sacrifice in Islam. He provides a 'thick description' of the elaborate camel sacrifice performed by Muhammad, which serves as the model for future Hajj sacrifices. Wheeler integrates biblical and classical Arabic sources with evidence from zooarchaeology and the rock art of ancient Arabia to gain insight into an event that reportedly occurred 1400 years ago. His book encourages a more nuanced and expansive conception of “sacrifice” in the history of religion.
Background:
The link between mental health difficulties and terrorist behaviour has been the subject of debate for the last 50 years. Studies that report prevalence rates of mental health difficulties in terrorist samples or compare rates for those involved and not involved in terrorism, can inform this debate and the work of those responsible for countering violent extremism.
Objectives:
To synthesise the prevalence rates of mental health difficulties in terrorist samples (Objective 1-Prevalence) and prevalence of mental health disorders pre-dating involvement in terrorism (Objective 2-Temporality). The review also synthesises the extent to which mental health difficulties are associated with terrorist involvement compared to non-terrorist samples (Objective 3-Risk Factor).
Search methods:
Searches were conducted between April and June 2022, capturing research until December 2021. We contacted expert networks, hand-searched specialist journals, harvested records from published reviews, and examined references lists for included papers to identify additional studies.
Selection criteria:
Studies needed to empirically examine mental health difficulties and terrorism. To be included under Objective 1 (Prevalence) and Objective 2 (Temporality), studies had to adopt cross-sectional, cohort, or case-control design and report prevalence rates of mental health difficulties in terrorist samples, with studies under Objective 2 also needing to report prevalence of difficulties before detection or involvement in terrorism. For Objective 3 (Risk Factor) studies where there was variability in terrorist behaviour (involved vs. not involved) were included.
Data collection and analysis:
Captured records were screened in DisillterSR by two authors. Risk of bias was assessed using Joanna Briggs Institute checklists, and random-effects meta-analysis conducted in Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software.
Results:
Fifty-six papers reporting on 73 different terrorist samples (i.e., studies) (n = 13,648) were identified. All were eligible for Objective 1. Of the 73 studies, 10 were eligible for Objective 2 (Temporality) and nine were eligible for Objective 3 (Risk Factor). For Objective 1, the life-time prevalence rate of diagnosed mental disorder in terrorist samples (k = 18) was 17.4% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 11.1%-26.3%]. When collapsing all studies reporting psychological problems, disorder, and suspected disorder into one meta-analyses (k = 37), the pooled prevalence rate was 25.5% (95% CI = 20.2%-31.6%). When isolating studies reporting data for any mental health difficulty that emerged before either engagement in terrorism or detection for terrorist offences (Objective 2: Temporality), the life-time prevalence rate was 27.8% (95% CI = 20.9%-35.9%). For Objective 3 (Risk Factor), it was not appropriate to calculate a pooled effect size due the differences in comparison samples. Odds ratios for these studies ranged from 0.68 (95% CI = 0.38-1.22) to 3.13 (95% CI = 1.87-5.23). All studies were assessed as having high-risk of bias which, in part, reflects challenges conducting terrorism research.
Author's conclusions:
This review does not support the assertion that terrorist samples are characterised by higher rates of mental health difficulties than would be expected in the general population. Findings have implications for future research in terms of design and reporting. There are also implications for practice with regards the inclusion of mental health difficulties as indicators of risk.
The item presented to readers is a continuation of the study Psychology of threats and security, Volume 1. The content complements selected problems in this field. It should be noted that no study is able to cover all the problems in a given field, so the choice made is the author's choice. From the enormous amount of facts and theories, the author chose issues that are important due to the profile of security sciences, and looking through the prism of general security, they are essential for the harmonious social development of the country. This part of the monograph deals with the issues of psychosocial and environmental risks, problems of stress, as well as the analysis of pathological behaviors and their determinants, the theory of aggression and the psychology of conflict and terrorism. The monograph was structured, dividing the content into seven chapters. Chapter one Psychosocial and environmental hazards - stress, the definition of stress is devoted to the selected psychological concepts stress, there are also important information on how to deal with stress. The second chapter Pathological behaviors and their background, in which the discussed issues were problems of pathological behaviors and antisocial, it is shown in the psychological aspect. The attention was paid to the theory of stigmatization and the theory of deviant behavior. Selected social pathologies are characterized. In chapter three titled: Civilization threats - threats resulting from addictions addiction to, among others, alcohol, drugs and drugs was discussed, attention was drawn to the increasingly observed computer addiction and the Internet, and also analyzed work addiction - workaholism. The theory of aggression is the title of the next, fourth chapter devoted to the analysis of the phenomenon of aggression, the possibility of its control and the prevention of aggressive behavior. The chapter devoted to aggression is continued with the fifth chapter, entitled Terrorist threats, presenting the phenomenon of terrorism in a wide spectrum of conflict theories and enriched with a synthetic analysis of the impact of mass media and propaganda on its shaping. Chapter six describes Behaviors that are helpful in crisis situations. The study ends with the seventh chapter devoted to the phenomenon of social influence and manipulation.
Readers who have the second part of the monograph in front of them, I encourage you to read the first part, which presents psychology as a field of science and its place in security sciences, an analysis of the conditions determining human behavior both in a threatening situation and in the well-being of a person in the social and social dimension. family, and then the problems of perception of threats were presented with heuristics. It contains content on mental and personality disorders and their impact on the functioning of a person in a group, deals with the problems of collective behavior and dysfunction of social groups, and antisocial behavior.
Partly in response to an earlier ‘pathological approach’ that seemingly stigmatised early Christian martyrdom, recent scholarship has adopted an ‘identity approach’ that explains martyrdom as a normative discourse of self-construction. This explanation of martyrdom as Christian identity-making, not willing death, is insufficient for three reasons. First, this approach implicitly reaffirms the theological claim that religious identity alone makes martyrs. In doing so it reduces the complexity of the individual martyr to ‘Christian’. Second, this approach excises the existential phenomenon of the martyr from martyrdom. Third, the term ‘identity’ has become ubiquitous, and its use to mark both sameness and difference has mitigated its value. As a result, the identity approach cannot answer a critical question: what makes the martyr different? Given the early Christian martyr’s pride of place in cultural understandings of martyrdom and the present-day persistence of martyrdom across ideologies with tragic results, relevant scholarship must continue to address the impetus of the martyr-agent in addition to exploring martyrdom’s identity-making functions. A multi-disciplinary approach is required to avoid apologetics for early Christian narratives and to understand the complex psychosocial dynamics of martyrdom, whether in the ancient past or the present.
Intelligence is a critical aspect of countering violent extremism, and technology is increasingly used to help expand the amount of information collected about potential terrorist threats. However, it is clear that an equally important (if not more important) part of these efforts is the ability to separate, within the mass of individuals (or data) identified, those individuals who will conduct acts of terrorism (the minority) from those who will not (the majority). Thus, a core challenge is how information is handled, interpreted, analyzed, and used to inform decisions. In this chapter we discuss the dynamic interplay between the collection of intelligence (including technology-assisted surveillance) and decision-making. Specifically, we focus on how issues in our understanding of “the terrorist” interact with and impact the use of technology within counterterrorism. In addition to this, and in support of future research in this area, we highlight some innovative areas for growth and new avenues to facilitate the integration of technology within counterterrorism.
Increasing anecdotal, empirical, and research evidence indicates mental disorder history is one of the several factors associated with increased risk of involvement in lone‐actor terrorist activities. Currently, few studies have been conducted on the mental disorder histories of individuals assessed as at risk of involvement in terrorist activities (Meloy, J Threat Assess Manag 2019;6:93). This pilot study describes demographic, psychiatric, and criminal characteristics of a sample of Scottish individuals identified by the Prevent element of the U.K. national counterterrorism strategy, and outcome data after follow‐up at 2 years. Twenty‐three individuals were referred to Prevent as posing a national security risk from a county in Scotland. Their records were studied for psychiatric and criminal histories. Nine (39%) had previous psychiatric contact, all were “lone actors”, and none were embedded with organized terrorist groups. The most common diagnoses were substance use disorder, personality disorder, depression, and psychotic disorder. The sample displayed factors associated with increased risk of violence including previous offending, early behavioral difficulties, school problems, substance misuse, cluster B personality disordered traits. After 2 years, 44% of the mentally disordered group had re‐offended. The offense types were generally similar to those prior to the individual being involved with the Prevent counter terrorism program. Only one of the mentally disordered group committed a further national security offense. In this sample, mental disorder history is overrepresented in individuals who come to the attention of the U.K. Prevent counter terrorism strategy. Further empirical studies with additional power are required to develop the empirical evidence base in this under‐researched area.
Martyrdom is thought to be a critical part of Christian identity. However, martyrdom necessarily includes the death of the martyr and the overwhelming majority of Christians have not been martyrs; in a very real sense, there is a gap between the martyr and the Christian. Instead, the martyr's death is transformed into a “willingness to suffer.” This substitution is often enabled in modern scholarship by the use of “identity,” a term characterized by imprecise boundaries. Enabled by this imprecision, scholarship has often recreated a Christian identity centered around martyrdom on an individual level with limited evidence. I propose that when studying Christian martyrdom, we isolate the theological justifications that support “willingness to suffer” from the act of martyrdom itself. This allows exploration of the comparatively rare phenomenon of martyrdom from non‐theological perspectives as well closer analysis of how martyrdom's existential impact is leveraged in Christian institution‐building.
This chapter contains a review of major prior theories of radicalization that adopt sociological, political science, or psychiatric perspectives. The chapter then compares the previous theories with the authors’ 3N theory, which posits that radicalization occurs due to a convergence of individuals’ needs, the narrative to which they are exposed, and the networks in which they are embedded. A comparative analysis reveals that those previous conceptualizations do not actually constitute rival alternatives to the 3N model but rather address some of its specific features. In this sense, the 3N model constitutes an integration of prior psychological proposals concerning the nature of radicalization; it depicts the general psychological factors underlying radicalization of which prior theories and conceptualization are specific cases.
This book discusses Islam, its relationship with the world, and how Muslims perceive the world and their role within it. Using Islamic scriptures and the works of important Muslim clerics, the author explores the Islamic notion that Muslims represent the best of humanity, and as such, have the duty and the right to propagate their faith throughout the world by any means, including violence. Islam and the Infidels warns of the dangers Muslim immigration poses to free societies. Using a diplomacy of deceit, Islamists immigrate to Western societies. Having done so, they establish closed ethnic communities that are estranged from their host countries, and are breeding grounds for native-born malcontents who may attack and destroy Western nations from within. The author is especially critical of Western apologists who not only pretend that Islam is not inherently aggressive and dangerous, but also denigrate those who point out the threat to liberal values posed by fundamentalist Islamic ideology. Bukay argues that to meet the Islamic threat, the West must understand Islam's true nature, and the best way of doing so is by analysing its scriptures and history. Bukay argues that Western societies should embrace the Judeo-Christian tradition, which is the root of their cultural heritage. In light of the mounting Muslim threat to liberalism in Western societies, citizens should resist oppressive Islamic practices and doctrines rather than accept them.
Evil, Terrorism and Psychiatry - edited by Donatella Marazziti February 2019
Much of the research on suicidal behavior in Muslim countries has been simple descriptive studies of samples of completed and attempted suicides. Despite this, and despite the possible under-reporting of suicidal behavior in countries where such behavior is illegal, suicide rates do appear to be lower in Muslims than in those of other religions, even in countries which have populations belonging to several religious groups. Rates of attempted suicide, on the other hand, do not appear to be lower in Muslims as compared to non-Muslims. Research into this topic has been quite poor, failing to take into account the ethnic background and the Islamic sect to which the suicidal subjects belonged. Reasons for the low rate of completed suicide in Muslims are reviewed, including differences in values and socio-economic status.
Research on the characteristics of suicide bombers is reviewed. Contrary to previous commentary, it is suggested that suicide bombers may share personality traits (such as the "authoritarian personality") that psychological profiles of suicide bombers might be feasible, and that the suicide bombers may be characterized by the risk factors that increase the probability of suicide.‐
In the United States, it seems unlikely that a foreign terrorist group would be able to assemble and maintain the required infrastructure within our borders that would provide a platform for a sustained campaign of suicide bombings. However, a strategy of infrequent suicide bombings supplemented by psychologically manipulative rhetoric during the intervals between attacks is plausible and could amplify the fear level. Attacks against high-value targets, use of weapons of mass destruction, or maintenance of an infrastructure on foreign soil with an operational capability for suicide attacks within our borders, would further amplify the psychological fallout. In either case, the potential psychological effects on society - including pervasive insecurity, reduced travel, commerce, and long-term investment, and foreign policy shifts in acquiescence to terrorist pressures - easily dwarf the potential physical effect of suicide terror on American soil. Therefore, identifying strategies to counter the psychological effects of suicide terror and promote resilience is an indispensable aspect of taking away its potential value to terrorist organizations around the world. Who becomes a suicidal terrorist and why is, perhaps obviously, a multifactorial "etiology" including significant developmental, psychodynamic, social, cultural, biological, temperamental, situational, and tactical-instrumental determinants. In other words, multiple "ingredients" often are needed in the manufacture and delivery of a suicide terrorist, or "human bomb" (Table 1, see page 706). For direct victims of terrorism and mass disasters, the principles of psychological support are relatively well developed. For the wider, societal target of the suicide bomber, psychological response is less well defined. Focusing on the intended effects of suicidal terror provides empowering insights to potential victims, enabling them to identify the boundary between rational and irrational fear and to neutralize the primary weapon of the suicide bombers (Table 2, see page 705).
researchers have identified two subtypes of aggression. reactive aggression is characterized by impulsive angry retaliation and has been associated with narcis-sism while proactive aggression is calculated and linked to psychopathy. how-ever, these aggression subtypes commonly co-occur and little is known about fac-tors that underlie each subtype or their overlap. the present study examined the relationship of psychophysiological factors, psychopathic, and narcissistic traits to proactive and reactive aggression during an experimental paradigm. among men, proactive aggression was predicted by low physiological reactivity to anxi-ety/punishment. Conversely, reactive aggression was associated with narcissistic traits and poor decision making under risk and rewards conditions for both sexes. Manipulative and egocentric features of psychopathy were related to proactive physical aggression among men but to reactive indirect aggression among wom-en. these data point to factors that uniquely influence each aggression subtype and their co-occurrence, and highlight the role of gender in the expression of aggression. Increasingly, research suggests that aggression is best conceived as a continuum with adaptive correlates such as social status and goal attainment in its normative range, and maladaptive outcomes at
Many people judge suicide to be immoral. We have found evidence that these moral judgments are primarily predicted by people’s belief that suicide taints the soul and by independent concerns about purity. This finding is inconsistent with accounts that define morality as fundamentally based upon harm considerations. In this commentary, we respond to a critique of our finding, and we provide further support for our original conclusions. Even when applying new exclusion criteria to our data, an examination of effect sizes demonstrates that concerns about purity robustly and meaningfully explain variance in moral judgments of suicide. While harm concerns sometimes predict moral judgments of suicide alongside purity concerns, they reliably explain a much smaller proportion of the variance than do purity concerns. Therefore, data from six studies continue to suggest that the relevance of harm concerns for moral judgments of suicide is substantially overshadowed by the contribution of purity concerns.
Moral violations are typically defined as actions that harm others. However, suicide is considered immoral even though the perpetrator is also the victim. To determine whether concerns about purity rather than harm predict moral condemnation of suicide, we presented American adults with obituaries describing suicide or homicide victims. While harm was the only variable predicting moral judgments of homicide, perceived harm (toward others, the self, or God) did not significantly account for variance in moral judgments of suicide. Instead, regardless of political and religious views and contrary to explicit beliefs about their own moral judgments, participants were more likely to morally condemn suicide if they (i) believed suicide tainted the victims' souls, (ii) reported greater concerns about purity in an independent questionnaire, (iii) experienced more disgust in response to the obituaries, or (iv) reported greater trait disgust. Thus, suicide is deemed immoral to the extent that it is considered impure.
Evil is a difficult topic to explore from an analytic, let alone scientific, perspective because the concept of evil is primarily emotive and moralistic. Like the perception of risk (Sandman, 1989; Slovic, 1987), the perception of evil is often accompanied by feelings of outrage and dread, even terror. Alford (1997) found that people tend to describe evil mainly in terms of a sense of impending doom, suggesting that the phenomenology of evil is closely tied to emotional responses to perceived actors and events—namely, to people's "gut feelings." Evil, though, is also clearly related to attributions of extreme moral wrongdoing (Darley, 1992), suggesting that its phenomenology (again like risk perception) may be one that we would characterize as "hot
The research examines whether anger rather than disgust is more likely to be responsible for changes in moral judgment, after individuals consider potential circumstances. Participants first read a scenario that described a moral violation (harm or fairness vs. purity) and then gave their initial moral judgment and emotions toward the act. They were then asked to list things that could change their opinion and were provided with an opportunity to fill out the measures again, re-evaluating the scenario with these changes in mind. It was found that ratings of disgust did not change after generating potential circumstances; however, anger changed in differential ways for the two violation types. It was also found that anger but not disgust predicted change in moral judgment. These findings suggest that moral anger is a more flexible emotion than moral disgust because anger is more likely to respond to changes in circumstances.
The CAD model posits a mapping of contempt, anger, and disgust onto the moral codes of community, autonomy, and divinity, respectively. A recent study by Hutcherson and Gross posited moral disgust as the dominant other-condemning emotion across all three moral codes. However, the methodology used may have incidentally increased the relevance of disgust. In the current experiment, one condition repeated Hutcherson and Gross’s procedure, while in another condition, the authors added the word moral to three other emotions. Consistent with CAD, anger had the highest intensity ratings in response to autonomy violations, whereas “grossed out” was the dominant response to divinity violations. Furthermore, the adjective “moral” increased the relevance of anger, contempt, and fear in irrelevant domains, which suggests that the adjective moral increases any emotion’s moral relevance.
For centuries, philosophers, theologians, and scientists have used the idea of the Great Chain of Being to rank all beings, from demons to animals, humans, and gods, along a vertical dimension of morality. Although the idea of a chain of being has largely fallen out of academic favor, we propose that people still use an embodied vertical moral hierarchy to understand their moral world. This social cognitive chain of being (SCCB) encapsulates a range of research on moral perception including dehumanization (the perception of people as lower on the SCCB), anthropomorphism (the perception of animals as higher and the perceptions of gods as lower on the SCCB), and sanctification (the perception of people as higher on the SCCB). Moral emotions provide affective evidence that guide the perception of social targets as moral (e.g., elevation) or immoral (e.g., disgust). Perceptions of social targets along the SCCB enable people to fulfill group and self-serving, effectance, and existential motivations. The SCCB serves as a unifying theoretical framework that organizes research on moral perception, highlights unique interconnections, and provides a roadmap for future research.
© Association for Psychological Science 2011.
Inside Al Qaeda examines the leadership, ideology, structure, strategies, and tactics of the most violent politico-religious organization the world has ever seen. The definitive work on Al Qaeda, this book is based on five years of research, including extensive interviews with its members; field research in Al Qaeda-supported conflict zones in Central, South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East; and monitoring Al Qaeda infiltration of diaspora and migrant communities in North America and Europe.
Although founded in 1988, Al Qaeda merged with and still works with several other extremist groups. Hence Al Qaeda rank and file draw on nearly three decades of terrorist expertise. Moreover, it inherited a full-fledged training and operational infrastructure funded by the United States, European, Saudi Arabian and other governments for use in the anti-Soviet Jihad.
This book sheds light on Al Qaeda's financial infrastructure and how they train combat soldiers and vanguard fighters for multiple guerrilla, terrorist and semi-conventional campaigns in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, the Caucuses, and the Balkans. In addition, the author covers the clandestine Al Qaeda operational network in the West.
Gunaratna reveals:
how Osama bin Laden had his mentor and Al Qaeda founder, "Azzam", assassinated in order to take over the organization and that other Al Qaeda officers who stood in his way were murdered,
Al Qaeda's long-range, deep-penetration agent handling system in Western Europe and North America for setting up safe houses, procuring weapons, and conducting operations,
how the O55 Brigade, Al Qaeda's guerrilla organization, integrated into the Taliban,
how the arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui forced Al Qaeda to move forward on September 11,
how a plan to destroy British Parliament on 9/11 and to use nerve gas on the European Union Parliament were thwarted,
how the Iran--Hezbollah--Al Qaeda link provided the knowledge to conduct coordinated, simultaneous attacks on multiple targets, including failed plans to destroy Los Angeles International Airport, the USS Sullivan, the Radisson Hotel in Jordan, and eleven US commercial airliners over the Pacific ocean,
that one-fifth of international Islamic charities and NGOs are infiltrated by Al Qaeda,
how the US response is effective militarily in the short term, but insufficient to counter Al Qaeda's ideology in the long-term.
Finally, to destroy Al Qaeda, Gunaratna shows there needs to be a multipronged, multiagency, and multidimensional response by the international community.
Antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders are forms of persistent maladaptive personality styles that interfere with a person's functioning. Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a disregard for the rights of others often exemplified by criminal behavior and a lack of remorse. Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by a grandiose sense of self and pathological self-centeredness. Antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders often co-occur with one another and with other personality disorders and substance use disorders. The causes of antisocial and NPDs include both genetic and environmental influences. Success in treating these disorders often proves difficult.
Some Thoughts on Human Extinction, Kin Recognition, and the Impact of Patriotism on Inclusive Fitness - Volume 4 Issue 2 - Gary R. Johnson
The Role of Kin Recognition Mechanisms in Patriotic Socialization: Further Reflections1 - Volume 8 Issue 1 - Gary R. Johnson
We address leadership emergence and the possibility that there is a partially innate predisposition to occupy a leadership role. Employing twin design methods on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we estimate the heritability of leadership role occupancy at 24%. Twin studies do not point to specific genes or neurological processes that might be involved. We therefore also conduct association analysis on the available genetic markers. The results show that leadership role occupancy is associated with rs4950, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) residing on a neuronal acetylcholine receptor gene (CHRNB3). We replicate this family-based genetic association result on an independent sample in the Framingham Heart Study. This is the first study to identify a specific genotype associated with the tendency to occupy a leadership position. The results suggest that what determines whether an individual occupies a leadership position is the complex product of genetic and environmental influences, with a particular role for rs4950.
• individual differences and antisocial behavior;
• misconduct in workplace - carrying weapons and violently assaulting someone who “disrespects” you;
• “Antisocial” being not always “criminal,” and criminal law - at variance with what is seen as antisocial;
• genetics, crime and antisocial behavior - intergenerational transmission, and continuity of antisocial behavior, via exposure to multiple social risk factors;
• possible mechanisms for antisocial behavior - aggregated disfranchisement, leading to self-expression through criminal acts, helping perpetrators to obtain what other people appear to get apparently effortlessly;
• modern cognitive neuroscience - converging lines of evidence in its thinking about antisocial behavior;
• biopsychosocial processes - as life is lived, constant transaction between biological, psychological and social processes;
• personality and antisocial behavior - and McCrae's five-factor model (FFM), called the “Big Five”;
• personality disorders, psychiatric expression of extremes of normal personality - defined by clinical practitioners using either American Psychiatric Association's (APA) DSM–IV, or the World Health Organization's ICD–10;
• intelligence, IQ and antisocial behavior - individual differences in antisocial behavior, starting with evidence for heritability of behavior, and putative mechanisms
Evidence is reviewed which suggests that there may be little or no direct introspective access to higher order cognitive processes. Subjects are sometimes (a) unaware of the existence of a stimulus that importantly influenced a response, (b) unaware of the existence of the response, and (c) unaware that the stimulus has affected the response. It is proposed that when people attempt to report on their cognitive processes, that is, on the processes mediating the effects of a stimulus on a response, they do not do so on the basis of any true introspection. Instead, their reports are based on a priori, implicit causal theories, or judgments about the extent to which a particular stimulus is a plausible cause of a given response. This suggests that though people may not be able to observe directly their cognitive processes, they will sometimes be able to report accurately about them. Accurate reports will occur when influential stimuli are salient and are plausible causes of the responses they produce, and will not occur when stimuli are not salient or are not plausible causes.
The commonly accepted interpretation is that a religious motive—the desire to please God—is the principal reason why people volunteer for suicide missions. American political scientist Robert A. Pape rejects this view. For him the common thread linking suicide bombers is a political objective— driving out an occupier from one’s homeland, which they see as furthering the common good of their society. In arriving at this theory, Pape relied on the concept of “altruistic suicide,” developed by French sociologist Emile Durkheim in his pioneering work Suicide (1897). These ideas are discussed in Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (2005), from which the passage below is taken.
Suicidal attacks are a warfare tactic rooted in lethal altruism, a highly damaging drift away from people's more generous tendencies. Martyrs who commit these acts are extreme altruists by definition: They offer their lives as a supreme investment for others' interests. Individual differences in altruism have been measured using scales and economic games that have led to a growing understanding of their genetic and neurohormonal basis. Analyzing that in relation to suicide martyrdom leads to a question: Are there pockets of individuals among all populations who are willing to make high-cost investments of trust/sacrifice in nonkin others, particularly at war? Disentangling the neurocognitive attributes of altruism and its relationship to other traits mediating martyrdom proneness is a vital task to understand the genesis of suicidal attacks. A temperamental workspace for warriors encompassing the trait dimensions of dominance- submission, Machiavellianism-gullibility, and selfishness-altruism is outlined to frame the main clusters mediating violent martyrdom.
We cannot explain why people kill themselves. There are no necessary or sufficient causes for suicide, so rather than explaining suicide (looking for causes), perhaps we can understand suicide, at least in one individual, a phenomenological approach. This book begins by examining the diaries from eight individuals who killed themselves. Using qualitative analyses, supplemented in some cases by quantitative analyses, Lester seeks to uncover the unique thoughts and feelings that led these individuals to take their own lives. Lester has also studied suicide notes, the poems of those who died by suicide (both famous poets and unpublished poets), the letters written by suicides, blogs and twitter feeds, and one tape recording of a young man who killed himself just an hour or so after he recorded the tape. This book will give you insights into the "I" of the storm, the suicidal mind.
This book attempts to shed light on suicide missions and provide answers to the questions we all ask. Are these the actions of aggressive religious zealots and unbridled, irrational radicals or is there a logic driving those behind them? Are their motivations religious or has Islam provided a language to express essentially political causes? How can the perpetrators remain so lucidly effective in the face of certain death? And do these disparate attacks have something like a common cause? It focuses on four main instances: the Kamikaze, missions carried out by the Tamil Tigers in the civil war in Sri Lanka, the Lebanese and Palestinian groups in the Middle East, and the al-Qaeda 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. For more than two years, the authors have pursued an unprejudiced inquiry, investigating organizers and perpetrators alike of this extraordinary social phenomenon. Close comparisons between a whole range of cases raise challenging further questions: If suicide missions are so effective, why are they not more common? If killing is what matters, why not stick to 'ordinary' violent means? Or, if dying is what matters, why kill in the process?
The Third Reich met its end in the spring of 1945 in an unparalleled wave of suicides. Hitler, Goebbels, Bormann, Himmler and later Göring all killed themselves. These deaths represent only the tip of an iceberg of a massive wave of suicides that also touched upon ordinary lives. As this suicide epidemic has no historical precedent or parallel, it can tell us much about the Third Reich's peculiar self-destructiveness and the depths of Nazi fanaticism. The book looks at the suicides of both Nazis and ordinary people in Germany between 1918 and 1945, from the end of World War I until the end of World War II, including the mass suicides of German Jews during the Holocaust. It shows how suicides among different population groups, including supporters, opponents, and victims of the regime, responded to the social, cultural, economic and, political context of the time. The book also analyses changes and continuities in individual and societal responses to suicide over time, especially with regard to the Weimar Republic and the post-1945 era.
This book takes a hard-science look at the possibility that we humans have the capacity to care for others for their sakes (altruism) rather than simply for our own (egoism). The look is based not on armchair speculation, dramatic cases, or after-the-fact interviews, but on an extensive series of theory-testing laboratory experiments conducted over the past 35 years. Part I details the theory of altruistic motivation that has been the focus of this experimental research. The theory centers on the empathy-altruism hypothesis, which claims that other-oriented feelings of sympathy and compassion for a person in need (empathic concern) produce motivation with the ultimate goal of having that need removed. Antecedents and consequences of empathy-induced altruistic motivation are specified, making the theory empirically testable. Part II offers a comprehensive summary of the research designed to test the empathy-altruism hypothesis, giving particular attention to recent challenges. Overall, the research provides remarkably strong and consistent support for this hypothesis, forcing a tentative conclusion that empathy-induced altruism is within the human repertoire. Part III considers the theoretical and practical implications of this conclusion, suggesting that empathy-induced altruism is a far more pervasive and powerful force in human affairs than has been recognized. Failure to appreciate its importance has handicapped attempts to understand why we humans act as we do and wherein our happiness lies. This failure has also handicapped efforts to promote better interpersonal relations and create a more caring, humane society.
When it comes to explaining, predicting, and preventing suicide terrorism, there is a lot more important work to be done. This paper draws on the most recent evidence about where suicide terrorism occurs and why to propose a basic explanatory framework. Taking a bottom-up approach, it first identifies the minimum requirements for a suicide terrorism attack, and then outlines additional facilitators for the deadliest attacks and most prolonged suicide terrorism campaigns. Next, it applies these variables to clarify popular misunderstandings about foreign occupation as the primary cause of suicide terrorism. Finally, it shows how security officials can use this framework to develop a series of short term and long term countermeasures and begin to reduce the prevalence of suicide terrorism worldwide.
Human altruism in non-kin, unreciprocated contexts is difficult to understand in evolutionary terms. However, neo-Darwinian theories remain a potentially useful means of illuminating this behavior. In particular, induced altruism, wherein cues of genetic relatedness are manipulated to elicit costly behaviors for the benefit of non-kin, appears highly relevant. This article reviews cross-cultural data on several examples of extremely costly altruism-vows of celibacy, suicide bombings, and combat suicide-as exhibited in organizational and institutional contexts. Two predictions are used to test the relevance of induced altruism to the reinforcement of altruistic commitment to these behaviors. First, different organizations requiring costly sacrifice by their members should employ similar practices involving patterns of association, phenotypic similarity, and kinship terminology that are associated with kin cue-manipulation. Second, these organizational practices should be adopted as a consequence of recruit pools growing increasingly larger and, thus, less genetically related. There appears to be support for both predictions, suggesting that cross-cultural analyses could provide an effective avenue through which to test this and other evolutionary theories related to human unreciprocated altruism in non-kin contexts.
This article proposes that there are four primary types of suicide terrorist: (1) conventional suicide terrorists, who become suicidal owing to classic risk factors, (2) coerced suicide terrorists, who become suicidal because they fear the organizational consequences of not carrying out attacks, (3) escapist suicide terrorists, who become suicidal because they fear being captured by the enemy, and (4) indirect suicide terrorists, who become suicidal at an unconscious level and orchestrate their deaths in ways that disguise their desire to die. It then outlines behavioral expectations for each type, in terms of warning signs, tactical experience and attack styles, and concludes with recommendations for security countermeasures and future research.
Two studies investigated children's reasoning about their mental and bodily states during the time prior to biological conception-"prelife." By exploring prelife beliefs in 5- to 12-year-olds (N = 283) from two distinct cultures (urban Ecuadorians, rural indigenous Shuar), the studies aimed to uncover children's untutored intuitions about the essential features of persons. Results showed that with age, children judged fewer mental and bodily states to be functional during prelife. However, children from both cultures continued to privilege the functionality of certain mental states (i.e., emotions, desires) relative to bodily states (i.e., biological, psychobiological, perceptual states). Results converge with afterlife research and suggest that there is an unlearned cognitive tendency to view emotions and desires as the eternal core of personhood.
Using social dominance theory and structural balance theory to analyze the political and psychological perspectives of subordinated peoples, we argue that struggles between dominant and subordinated polities are embedded in layered power structures. In such contexts, it is important to examine publics' political desires and interests in relation to their political elites' positions or choices of political tactics and allegiances. To illustrate these arguments, we used random urban samples surveyed in March 2010 to examine Lebanese and Syrian citizens' favorability toward their governments and Hezbollah (a quasi-government faction with significant relations to the governments of Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and the United States). As theorized, citizens' favorability depended on (i) how much they view their government as providing services for them, (ii) opposition to general group dominance, (iii) opposition to US oppression, and (iv) their governments' alignments vis-à-vis the US. Implications for political psychology and international relations theory are discussed.
This study presents results from the first combined quantitative assessment and comparative analysis of suicide terrorists and rampage, workplace, and school shooters who attempt suicide. Findings suggest that in the United States from 1990 to 2010, the differences between these offenders (N = 81) were largely superficial. Prior to their attacks, they struggled with many of the same personal problems, including social marginalization, family problems, work or school problems, and precipitating crisis events. Ultimately, patterns among all four types of offenders can assist those developing security policy, conducting threat assessments, and attempting to intervene in the lives of at-risk individuals.