However, given the nature of suicide bombing, it only takes one or two.”

“Statistically, then, finding one or two people willing to make such a sacrifice is incredibly rare. Rare, that is, when it is remembered that extreme religious groups make up only a tiny fraction of religious groups as a whole, and 99.99 per cent of those groups are in fact peaceable. “But then suicide bombing is in actual fact very rare. Fortunately this is so only in extreme instances, under certain circumstances.

The benefits are perceived to be so great as to justify the action. “Suicide bombing is just an extension of this self-sacrifice - the ultimate extension. “To gain the collective benefits of participation in a strict group requires self-sacrifice, often of extreme levels. “Seen in this light, suicide bombing is explicable in terms of rationally motivated actions, and not in terms of theological and/or irrational motives,” he said. In this way there is a 'marriage' of violence and religion, via the suicide bomber's participation in the group, Dr Stevens suggests. The benefits are perceived by the terrorist to be so great - in terms of membership of the group, achievement of collective goals, the promise of benefits in the after-life, and so on - that they outweigh the cost. Suicide bombers are thus motivated by a “simple cost-benefit analysis”, in which the 'benefits' of self-destruction outweigh the cost. This is the desire to be part of a group that engenders strength and solidarity from strictness, and encourages members to submit totally to the collective aims of the group.īeing part of an exclusive group with very strict beliefs requires intense commitment, and engenders a deep belief in shared experience and self-sacrifice, according to a recent paper by Dr Stevens. Research by Dr David Stevens, of the School of Politics and International Relations, suggests that the widely-held view of suicide bombers as brain-washed religious fanatics, vulnerable through youth and poverty, is not an accurate one.ĭr Stevens argues that while religion plays a central role - there are few instances of non-religiously motivated suicide attacks - the suicide bomber is also driven on another level by a rational thought process.

Inside the mind of a suicidal person