Personality Characteristics of “Self Martyrs”/“Suicide Bombers” and Organizers of Suicide Attacks

Merari, Ariel; Diamant, Ilan; Bibi, Arie; Broshi, Yoav; Zakin, Giora

doi:10.1080/09546550903409312

Cited by 91 publications

(94 citation statements)

References 0 publications

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“…other terrorists and non-political criminals) (Merari, 2010;Merari, Diamant, et al, 2009;Merari, Fighel, et al, 2009). These studies employed a range of techniques including clinical interviews, personality tests, the Thematic Apperception Test, and the House-Tree-Person Drawing test.…”

Section: Disaggregating the Terroristmentioning

confidence: 99%

There and back again: The study of mental disorder and terrorist involvement.

Gill¹,

Corner²

2017

American Psychologist

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For the past forty years, researchers studied the relationship between mental disorder and terrorist involvement. The literature developed in four paradigms, each of which differs in terms of their empirical evidence, the specific mental disorders studied, and their conceptualizations of terrorist involvement. These paradigms have not, however, witnessed linear and incremental improvements upon one another. Although one paradigm has generally tended to dominate a temporal period, many false assumptions and incorrect interpretations of earlier work permeate into today's discourse. This paper provides a history of the study of mental disorders and the terrorist. First, we briefly outline the core fundamental principles of the first two paradigms, The paper then outlines the core arguments produced by the seminal reviews conducted in paradigm three. We highlight how these findings were consistently misinterpreted in subsequent citations. We then highlight recent innovations in the study of terrorism and mental disorder since the various influential literature reviews of 1997-2005. We conclude by outlining how future research in this area may improve in the coming years by broadening our understanding of both terrorist involvement and psychopathology away from simple dichotomous thinking.

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Section: Disaggregating the Terroristmentioning

confidence: 99%

There and back again: The study of mental disorder and terrorist involvement.

Gill¹,

Corner²

2017

American Psychologist

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“…An example is provided by Merari et al (2010b) who interviewed suicide bombers who did not complete their mission. One of them describes that due to doubts growing on the way to the target, shortly before the attack he decided not to carry it out (Merari et al 2010a). This recount supports the hypothesis of hyperbolic discounting: The attack's short term effect-the loss of utility from living-gains in weight right before the attack and overcompensates the present value of long-run, posthumous utility from the attack.…”

Section: Decision Process Of a Suicide Bomber 257mentioning

confidence: 54%

“…Support of the hypothesis that manipulation might work given the personality structure of suicide bombers is provided, for example, by Merari et al (2010a). When analyzing the personalities of suicide attackers and the organizers of such attacks, they found-albeit for a small sample-that organizers are endowed with more ego strength than suicide attackers.…”

Section: Terrorist Organizationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Decision processes of a suicide bomber—the economics and psychology of attacking and defecting

Pittel

Rübbelke

2012

Defence and Peace Economics

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This paper provides a theoretical analysis of suicide attacks and defection. First, decision processes of potential attackers are examined from an economist's perspective. The results are then applied to insights from behavioural economics and psychology. We derive conditions under which agents decide to become suicide bombers-or to announce an attack and defect later. Taking account of hyperbolic discounting we show why the decision to commit a suicide attack can be time-inconsistent and what internal manipulation mechanisms (arising from cognitive dissonance and terror management) and external manipulation mechanisms (employed by terrorist organizations and governments) might prevent or foster time-inconsistency.

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“…Currently, the literature does not show a consensus regarding the personality factors, or risk factors, which might help determine profiles of potential suicide attackers [14]. This is due, largely, to the fact that the suicide attacks and, especially, the process behind it, is multidimensional and multi-determined [15], as it includes psychological, social, spiritual factors, as well as issues of honour and morality, over which is placed the homogeneous cultural veil.…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%