Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T15:55:48.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evidence that suicide terrorists are suicidal: Challenges and empirical predictions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2014

Adam Lankford
Adam Lankford*
Affiliation:
Department of Criminal Justice, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0320. [email protected]://adamlankford.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers proposes that suicide terrorists are psychologically and behaviorally similar to other people who commit suicide, due to a range of individual, social, and situational factors. Some commentators agree, while others are skeptical, given the lack of information about many attackers' lives. However, the book's position is not simply based on individual case studies; it is also supported by other independent assessments, the confirmation of empirical predictions, the paucity of contradictory evidence, and new applications of evolutionary theory. It is undisputed that human beings behave as the author suggests; it is unknown if they behave as the conventional wisdom suggests. Those who argue that suicide terrorists are psychologically normal and altruistically sacrificing their lives for an ideological cause should bear the burden of proof for those claims.

Type
Author's Response
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , August 2014 , pp. 380 - 393
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atran, S. (2003) Genesis of suicide terrorism. Science 299:1534–39. Available at: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/299/5612/1534.full Google Scholar
Atran, S. (2010b) Talking to the enemy: Religion, brotherhood, and the (un)making of terrorists. HarperCollins. (Paperback edition).Google Scholar
Berko, A. (2007) The path to paradise: The inner world of suicide bombers and their dispatchers. Praeger.Google Scholar
Berko, A. (2012) The smarter bomb: Women and children as suicide bombers. Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Browning, C. (1998) Ordinary men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the final solution in Poland. HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Brym, R. (2007) Six lessons of suicide bombers. Contexts 6:40–45. Available at: http://intl-ctx.sagepub.com/content/6/4/40.refs Google Scholar
Brym, R. & Araj, B. (2012) Are suicide bombers suicidal? Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 35:432–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burger, J. M. (1999) The foot-in-the-door compliance procedure: A multiple-process analysis and review. Personality and Social Psychology Review 3:303–25.Google Scholar
Burton, F. & Stewart, S. (2008) Moroccan arrests and the security of militant recruiters. Stratfor, May 21, 2008. (Online weekly). Available at: http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/moroccan_arrests_and_security_militant_recruiters Google Scholar
Byman, D. & Fair, C. (2010) The case for calling them nitwits. The Atlantic, June 8, 2010. (Online article). Available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-case-for-calling-them-nitwits/8130/ Google Scholar
CPOST (Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism). (2011) Suicide attack database. Available at: http://cpost.uchicago.edu/search.php Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (1976) The selfish gene. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fair, C. (2007) Suicide attacks in Afghanistan: 2001–2007. United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.Google Scholar
Freedman, J. L. & Fraser, S. C. (1966) Compliance without pressure: The foot-in-the-door technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 4:195–202.Google Scholar
Grossman, D. (1995) On killing: The psychological cost of learning to kill in war and society. Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Gunaratna, R. (2002) Inside Al Qaeda: Global network of terror. Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, W. D. (1964) The genetical evolution of social behavior, I and II. Journal of Theoretical Biology 7:1–16; 17–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, R. (1986) Institutions and the promotion of violence. In: Violent transactions: The limits of personality, ed. Campbell, A. & Gibbs, J.J., pp. 181–204. Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Joiner, T. (2005) Why people die by suicide. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Joiner, T., Pettit, J., Walker, R., Voelz, Z., Cruz, J., Rudd, M. & Lester, D. (2002) Perceived burdensomeness and suicidality: Two studies on the suicide notes of those attempting and those completing suicide. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 21:531–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lankford, A. (2010) Suicide terrorism as a socially approved form of suicide. Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention 31(6):287–89. doi:10.1027/0227-5910/a000073.Google Scholar
Lankford, A. (2011a) Could suicide terrorists actually be suicidal? Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 34:337–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lankford, A. (2013b) Convincing suicide bombers that God says no. Open Democracy, January 20, 2013. (Online journal). Available at: http://www.opendemocracy.net/adam-lankford/convincing-suicide-bombers-that-god-says-no Google Scholar
Maris, R. W., Berman, A. L. & Silverman, M. M. (2000) Comprehensive textbook of suicidology. Guilford Press.Google Scholar
McCauley, C. & Moskalenko, S. (2008) Mechanisms of political radicalization: Pathways toward terrorism. Terrorism and Political Violence 20:415–33.Google Scholar
Merari, A. (2010) Driven to death: Psychological and social aspects of suicide terrorism. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Milgram, S. (1963) Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67:371–78. Available at: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/terrace/w1001/readings/milgram.pdf Google Scholar
Moghaddam, F. M. (2005) The staircase to terrorism: A psychological exploration. American Psychologist 60:161–69.Google Scholar
Obaid-Chinoy, S. (2010) Inside a school for suicide bombers. [Interactive Web talk at TED] Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/sharmeen_obaid_chinoy_inside_a_school_for_suicide_bombers.html Google Scholar
Qaisi, M. (2012) Al-Qaeda recruiting mentally challenged individuals for suicide attacks. Al-Shorfa, August 15, 2012. Available at: http://al-shorfa.com/en_GB/articles/meii/features/2012/08/20/feature-01 Google Scholar
Robinson, S. (2007) The world's worst suicide bombers? Time, July 28, 2007. (Online). Available at: http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1647922,00.html Google Scholar
Siemaszko, C. (2009) ‘Mother of believers,’ suspected of recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers, arrested in Iraq. New York Daily News, February 3, 2009. (Online). Available at: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/mother-believers-suspected-recruiting-80-female-suicide-bombers-arrested-iraq-article-1.388743 Google Scholar
Stern, J. (2003) Terror in the name of god: Why religious militants kill. Ecco.Google Scholar
Uyayri, Y. (2000) The Islamic ruling on the permissibility of self-sacrificial operations: Suicide or martyrdom. [Primary source terrorist document, Online.] Available at: http://islamfuture.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/the-islamic-ruling-on-the-permissibility-of-self-sacrificial-operations-suicide-or-martyrdom.pdf Google Scholar
Waller, J. (2002) Becoming evil: How ordinary people commit genocide and mass killing. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Warius, A. & Fishman, B. (2009) A jihadist's course in the art of recruitment. CTC Sentinel, 2. (Online publication). Available at: http://www.ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Vol2Iss2-Art5.pdf Google Scholar
Westermann, E. (2005) Hitler's police battalions: Enforcing racial war in the east. University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (2013) Suicide prevention. Available at: http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/ Google Scholar
Yusufzai, A. (2011) Taliban drugs youth before suicide missions. Central Asia Online, October 6, 2011. Available at: http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/main/2011/10/06/feature-01 Google Scholar
Zimbardo, P. (1972) Pathology of imprisonment. Society 9(6):4–8.Google Scholar