Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:08:40.323Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Martyrdom's would-be myth buster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2014

Scott Atran
Scott Atran*
Affiliation:
CNRS – Institut Jean Nicod, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France.satran@umich.eduhttp://sitemaker.umich.edu/satran/home
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Lankford overgeneralizes individual psychology from limited, fragmentary and doubtful materials, and underplays strategic, ideological, and group dynamical factors. His speculative claims manifest a form of fundamental attribution error: the tendency – especially evident in popular attachment to moral presumptions of individual responsibility and volition – to overestimate effects of personality and underestimate situational effects in explaining social behavior. The book's appeal may owe more to ideological preference than to interests of science or national security.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , August 2014 , pp. 362 - 363
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

ARTIS (2009) Theoretical frames on pathways to violent radicalization. Prepared for the Office of Naval Research. Available at: http://www.artisresearch.com/articles/ARTIS_Theoretical_Frames_August_2009.pdf Google Scholar
Atran, S. (2003) Genesis of suicide terrorism. Science 299:1534–39. Available at: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/299/5612/1534.full CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Atran, S. (2008) Who becomes a terrorist today? Perspectives on Terrorism 2(5). Available at: http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/35/html Google Scholar
Atran, S. (2010c) Talking to the enemy: Violent extremism, sacred values, and what it means to be human. Penguin.Google Scholar
Atran, S. (2011) Pathways to and from violent extremism: The case for science-based field research. Testimony before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats & Capabilities, March 10, 2010. [Available at:http://armed-services.senate.gov/statemnt/2010/03%20March/Atran%2003-10-10.pdf.] Follow up responses to Senators' questions (2010–2011). [Available at: http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/US_Senate_Hearing_on_Violent_Extremism.pdf].Google Scholar
Atran, S., Axelrod, R. & Davis, R. (2007) Sacred barriers to conflict resolution. Science 31:1039–40.Google Scholar
Atran, S. & Medin, D. (2008) The native mind and the cultural construction of nature. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brym, R. & Araj, B. (2012) Are suicide bombers suicidal? Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 35:432–43.Google Scholar
Ehrenreich, B. (1997) Blood rites: Origins and history of the passions of war. Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Ginges, J., Atran, S., Medin, D. & Shikaki, K. (2007) Sacred bounds on the rational resolution of violent political conflict. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104:7357–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (2007) The Saudi experience of countering terrorism. Riyadh Ministry of Interior, Document Processing Center.Google Scholar
Kruglanski, A. W. & Gelfand, M. J. (2013) Motivation, ideology, and the social process of radicalization: A social science Minerva project. APS Observer 26(4). Available at: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2013/april-13/motivation-ideology-and-the-social-process-in-radicalization.html Google Scholar
Lankford, A. (2013c) The myth of martyrdom: What really drives suicide bombers, rampage shooter, and other self-destructive killers. Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Magouirk, J. & Atran, S. (2008) Jemaah Islamiyah's radical madrassah network. Dynamics of Asymmetric Warfare 1(1). Available at: http://www.artisresearch.com/articles/Atran_Jemaah_Islamiyahs.pdf Google Scholar
Merari, A., Diamant, I., Bibi, A., Broshi, Y. & Zakin, G. (2010) Personality characteristics of “self martyrs”/“suicide bombers” and organizers of suicide attacks. Terrorism and Political Violence 22(1):87–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norenzayan, A. & Nisbett, R. E. (2000) Culture and causal cognition. Current Directions in Psychological Science 9:132–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohnuki-Tierney, E. (2006) Kamikaze, cherry blossoms, and nationalisms: The militarization of aesthetics in Japanese history. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Pape, R. (2010) Cutting the fuse: The explosion of global suicide terrorism and how to stop it. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Pedhazur, A. & Perlinger, A. (2006) The changing nature of suicide attacks: A social network perspective. Social Forces 84:1987–2008.Google Scholar
Sageman, M. (2008) Leaderless Jihad. University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Tobeña, A. (2011) Suicide attack martyrdoms: Temperament and mindset of altruistic warriors. In: Pathological altruism, ed. Oakley, B., Knafo, A., Madhavan, G. & Wilson, D.S., pp. 207–44. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tokkotai Senbotsusha Irei Heiwa Kinen Kyoukai (Tokkotai Commemoration Peace Memorial Association) (1990) Tokubetsu Kougekitai (Special Attack Corps). Tokkotai Senbotsusha Irei Heiwa Kinen Kyoukai.Google Scholar