Possible Motives for Suicide Bombings (in process)
Explanation: While reading about suicide bombers, several ideas kept coming up. I listed these repeated ideas, such as “suicide bombers are crazy,” and used them to organize my notes. When taking notes, I looked for reasons each idea might be true and evidence that might prove it false. For some topics, it might work best to finish taking notes, then look for repeated ideas.
Suicide bombers are crazy.
Some psychologists believe that terrorists are mentally ill. For example, Jerrold Post argues that terrorists are driven by “narcissistic rage” (as cited in Hudson, 1999, p.20). He believes that they “are driven to commit acts of violence as a consequence of psychological forces” (as cited in Hudson, 1999, p. 28).
However, most psychologists consider terrorists to be sane. Crenshaw found that “the outstanding common characteristic of terrorists is their normality” (as cited in Hudson, 1999, p. 30), and Taylor and Quade could find no psychological differences between non-terrorists and those who had committed terrorist acts (p. 31).
Suicide bombers are poor and uneducated.
The National Strategy for Combating Terrorism (2003) identifies poverty as a breeding ground for terrorism: “Underlying conditions such as poverty, corruption, religious conflict and ethnic strife create opportunities for terrorists to exploit” (The Structure of Terror section).
However, studies by economist Alan Kreuger have found that a country’s average income has no link to terrorism, but repression of civil liberties does (Atran, 2004, p. 8). Anthropologist Scott Atran, who surveyed failed suicide bombers and family members of successful bombers, found “these people are fairly well-educated, mostly middle class, and not acting at all in despair” (as cited in Research, 2003). This finding is consistent with online biographies of 430 suicide bombers in Iraq. Many are college-educated, and they are often praised for sacrificing their “wealth and good prospects” (Haqquani & Kimmage, 2005, p. 14). In fact, terrorist groups often recruit people with good educations because they have proven that they will work hard for future rewards (Atran, 2004, pp.76–77).
Suicide bombers hate America.
Terrorism is contagious.
David G. Hubbard believes that people living in unsettled regions produce high levels of “fight-or-flight” hormones, including endorphins that “narcoticize” the brain. Media coverage of terrorist acts heightens the fight-or-flight response, encouraging terrorism to spread through the “contagion effect” (Hudson, 1999, p. 18).
Terrorists use suicide bombings as a rational strategy.
Suicide bombers identify with a group to escape the “cycle of humiliation.”
Shaw’s “personal pathway model,” discussed in Hudson, p. 25, Haquani, motives in online bios, p. 16, and cycle of humiliation, Altman
References
Altman, N. (2005, March/April). On the psychology of suicide bombing. Tikkun, 20(2). Retrieved October 23, 2005, from Academic Search Elite database.
Atran, S. (2004, Summer). Mishandling suicide terrorism. The Washington Quarterly, 27(3), 67–90. Retrieved October 21 from the Center for Strategic and International Studies Web site:
Haqqani, H., & Kimmage, D. (2005, October 3). Suicidology: The online bios of Iraq’s “martyrs.” New Republic,233(14), 14–16. Retrieved October 23, 2005, from Academic Search Elite database.
Hudson, R. A. (1999, September) The sociology and psychology of terrorism: Who becomes a terrorist and why? Retrieved October 23, 2005, from the Library of Congress Web site:
National strategy for combating terrorism (2003). Retrieved October 23, 2005, from the United States Mission to the European Union Web site:
Research reveals new profile of suicide bombers [radio broadcast transcript]. (2003, March 7). Retrieved October 20, 2005, from the National Public Radio Morning Edition Web site: