The importance of cultural variables for explaining suicide terrorism

Abstract

Lankford criticizes the notion that suicide terrorists are "normal" and argues that they are suicidal. We have two misgivings about this. First, he puts sole focus on the personal side of suicidality and ignores the individual's context. Second, he fails to elaborate on the intent to harm others, which must also include the cultural, political, religious/ideological, and social-organizational factors of suicide terrorism.

Public opinions of suicide bombers’ mental health1,2

“…From their perspective, suicide terrorists are relatively ordinary people who become fully committed to their cause because of social and situational factors. They argue that those who point to individual factors as a cause of suicide terrorists' behavior may be committing the fundamental attribution error ( Atran, 2003 ;Brym, 2007 ;Gray & Dickson, 2014 ;Güss & Tuason, 2014 ).…”