We all have a set of preferences, which can be "ranked" according to their "salience". If I prefer ice cream to pecan pie, for example, then ice cream can be said to have a higher salience for me than pecan pie. Given the choice between the two, I will choose ice cream. (It may be, however, that my slim figure has a higher salience for me than either treat, in which case I will choose to forego both!) Although we can complicate these assumptions in various ways, they should suffice for the moment.
For most people, physical survival has very high salience. However, there may be things that have higher salience. A mother, for example, may be willing to give her life to save her children. The impulse for maternal protection is stronger-- has higher salience-- than the impulse for survival. Similarly, then, a person will become a suicide bomber when the following conditions are met:
1. The expected outcome of self-sacrifice has high salience,†
2. The salience of physical survival is lower than the salience of the above expected outcome, and
3. One is presented with the necessary means and opportunity to carry out the act.
It's no accident that most people who carry out such acts do so in the name of radical ideologies and organizations. Such ideologies and organizations help meet each of the above conditions.
For example, in Hamas-run schools in Palestine, "martyrs" are accorded great prestige, and children are taught that martyrdom will be rewarded in heaven and will alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people. Jews, meanwhile are dehumanized as "dogs," "pigs," and "enemies." These teachings exalt the benefits of martyrdom while downplaying its ethical and political downsides. This helps to satisfy the first condition.
The second condition may be satisfied either by convincing people that physical death is merely a gateway to a higher and better existence, or by devaluing the continuation of physical life. Radical Islamist groups do both. They teach that martyrs go to heaven where they enjoy great pleasures such as the 70 celestial virgins, and they also socially sanction failure and cowardice so that failed bombers will experience great shame and loss of self-worth. Such measures greatly reduce the salience of physical survival.
The role that radical groups play in meeting the third condition, of course, should be obvious. Organized groups tend to have access to funding and expertise that individuals do not. Most individuals would never be presented with the opportunity for martyrdom without the support of a radical group.
So while the quest for personal significance may be one factor motivating terrorists to engage in suicide-bombing, it is neither the only such motive nor the only condition that must be met. Suicide bombers may be moved, for example, by compassion for Palestinians, or by fear of shame, or by desire for a peaceful and pleasurable existence in heaven. A better predictor for martyr-behavior than loss of personal significance would seem to be the presence of a radicalized group or ideology that socializes people, manipulates their preferences, and provides them means and opportunity.
† The perceived probability of the outcome is a factor as well, but is here assumed to be 100%. A formal model would express conditions 1 and 2 this way:
Salience of Survival * Perceived Probability of Death (100%) > Salience of Expected Outcome * Perceived Probability of This Outcome
5 comments:
Additionally, I think there are some more mundane factors that enter into condition #2. Specifically, if you feel that you have the opportunity and ability to have a successful life (however you might define it), and/or if you feel that loved ones need and rely on you, then it will take more than ideology and vain promises to convince you to sacrifice this life for the next.
Being trapped in a region full of poverty and war -- where you hardly have the opportunity to guess what a peaceful, happy life might be like -- is part of the problem. Additionally, widespread polygyny can increase the population of frustrated, angry young men who are taught by their community that they're expendable; that their only value is to fight and die. Many of these guys would be happy to be (one day) peacefully married and raising/supporting a family, if it weren't for economic and social conditions turning that into the impossible dream. Then there's this:
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man;
so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them
As a mom, I'm horrified that there are people who praise that passage as good advice. No child should ever have to be raised to be an (expendable) weapon.
Agreed, chanson. Very well said!
Ah, Chris. An excellent topic, and one that has occupied me for quite some time.
I think you're right, but I don't think you answer the more interesting question. That is, yes it's salience, yes it's beliefs, yes it's means. But why? Why do people believe stuff about 70 virgins, about Muhammed, about the Quran, about Islam, when the physically observable world should cause them to question these things.
To me, an analogous question in Mormonism (that is so obvious to anyone outside Mormonism) is why someone would continue to believe in the historicity of a book with such fantastic origins amidst a complete dearth of evidence, disagreement of opinion (even amongst apologists), and at least some compelling evidence of it being an 18th century as opposed to archaic work?
In other words, WHY do people place high salience on these beliefs over more "physical" observations? To me, that's the real interesting question, and personally, I think the answer lies in genetics, evolution, personality, culture, psychology, etc.
I came to your blog from the friends of Mormon expressions links.
I don't have any particular comment about this entry other than to say I enjoy it and agree with what you have to say.
Thanks, Chris. I'm glad you found your way here!
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