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Cognitive simplicity and self-deception are crucial in martyrdom and suicide terrorism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2014

Bernhard Fink  and
Robert Trivers
Bernhard Fink
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Personality Psychology and Assessment, and Courant Research Centre Evolution of Social Behavior, University of Göttingen, Kellnerweg 6, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany. [email protected]
Robert Trivers
Affiliation:
Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. [email protected]
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Abstract

Suicide attacks and terrorism are characterized by cognitive simplicity, which is related to self-deception. In justifying violence in pursuit of ideologically and/or politically driven commitment, people with high religious commitment may be particularly prone to mechanisms of self-deception. Related megalomania and glorious self-perception are typical of self-deception, and are thus crucial in the emergence and expression of (suicide) terrorism.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , August 2014 , pp. 366 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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