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The families of suicide attackers might benefit reproductively from the increased reputation associated with having a family member celebrated as a martyr, suggesting a potential evolutionary motivation for suicide attack.
Introduction
Suicide terrorism might yield heightened family reputation and status within local communities, providing an avenue through which suicide terrorists might generate benefits to their genetic kin. Though this is an interesting hypothesis, there are currently no studies that measure the mating or reproductive outcomes of the kin of suicide terrorists as a function of increased reputation.
Theoretical Overview: Suicide Terrorism and Reputational Benefits to Kin
Research conducted in several Muslim nations indicates that identity based on collectivism as opposed to individualism is associated with greater support for terrorism (Kruglanski and Orehek 2011). The cultures of the Middle East and circum-Mediterranean region are often deemed honor cultures where many social norms and priorities are constructed around reputation maintenance and shame-avoidance (Peristiany 1965). Employing agent-based modeling, Nowak et al. (2016) demonstrated that honor cultures could be adaptive under conditions wherein institutional authority is weak and resources are scarce. Thus, honor-based strategies, i.e., retaliation against aggressors in defense of one’s own and family’s reputation and honor, might be an effective and evolutionarily stable strategy. An abundance of evidence suggests that suicide is used in a geographical array of “honor cultures” to reestablish one’s own or one’s family’s honor (Osterman and Brown 2011). Likewise, motivations for suicide terrorism include the defense of honor of one’s people and homeland; moreover, suicide terrorists are often celebrated as “martyrs” (Hafez 2006). The reputational benefits obtained by the deceased in these instances appear to extend to their kin, and theoretically, the kin might receive reproductive benefits (e.g., greater access to high status mates) as a result of the death of their loved one as a perpetrator of a suicide attack.
Hafez (2006) contends that in a rational-choice approach to suicide terrorism, the honor afforded the families of martyrs might factor into cost-benefit calculations, noting that in this perspective the social benefits for the suicide terrorist alone cannot be considered “rational” since he or she will not survive to see those benefits. In this sense, the reputational argument of suicide terrorism must factor culture into consideration. The veneration of martyrs, Hafez (2006) argues, will occur in a society when the following conditions are met: (1) the justification and celebration of martyrdom through tradition and symbolic representations; (2) the promotion of violence and martyrdom by recognized cultural authorities (e.g., local leaders or institutions); and (3) the society feels victimized or threatened by an outside aggressor.
Conclusion
Numerous studies demonstrate that high status correlates with reproductive success. Though reputational benefits are anecdotally cited as a potential motivator for suicide attack, there are currently no studies that even quantify reputation, nor measure how those might translate into reproductive benefits for the kin of suicide attackers.
References
Hafez, M. M. (2006). Rationality, culture, and structure in the making of suicide bombers: A preliminary theoretical synthesis and illustrative case study. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 29(2), 165–185.
Kruglanski, A. W., & Orehek, E. (2011). The role of quest for significance in motivating terrorism. In J. Forgas, A. Kruglanski, & K. Williams (Eds.), Social Conflict and Aggression (pp. 153–164). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Nowak, A., Gelfand, M. J., Borkowski, W., Cohen, D., & Hernandez, I. (2016). The evolutionary basis of honor cultures. Psychological Science, 27(1), 12–24.
Osterman, L. L., & Brown, R. P. (2011). Culture of honor and violence against the self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(12), 1611–1623.
Peristiany, J. G. (Ed.). (1965). Honour and shame: The values of Mediterranean society. London, UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
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Syme, K. (2018). Reputation. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_601-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_601-1
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