What Are the Causes of Suicide Bombing?
The causes of suicide bombing lie in group dynamics. The public usually attributes suicide bombing to individuals with terrorist mentalities. In reality, suicide bombing results from interactions within a group that create ideological extremism. A political and socio-psychological analysis can explain how suicide bombing occurs.
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Formation
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Individuals form a group that advocates suicide bombing. Suicide bombing is most associated with religious fanaticism, but it is fanaticism and not religion itself that is responsible. Rather, religion is the ideology that forms the group. When individuals form a group based on an ideal, they tend to influence the thinking of each other. This causes the group's opinion on the ideal to become more extreme as a whole. The result is a group with a radical stance.
Participation
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The group contains individuals that become suicide bombers. People tend to think that something must be wrong with suicide bombers individually for them to act in such a destructive manner. Contrary to popular opinion, suicide bombers are not necessarily uneducated, crazy or easily manipulated. Most suicide bombers are ordinary people who are simply subjected to social pressure. As group members interact, they can establish a stronger group identity to the point that they become mutually willing to sacrifice themselves for their cause. Suicide bombers are not attracted to the group---they arise within it.
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Environment
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The political climate leads a group to dispatch suicide bombers. Examples are the Israeli-Palestine conflict and Western influence in the Muslim world. These situations give groups a reason to act upon their extremist ideology, using suicide bombing as a tactic. Political climate can also cause these groups to form in the first place.
Consequences
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Today, terrorist attacks are a source of considerable concern to the American public and government. Suicide bombing can instill fear, increased patriotism and mistrust of outsiders in Americans.
This is explained through Terror Management Theory. When people become aware of death, they associate more with their own groups and distance themselves from groups they see as different. This helps relieve the feeling of mortality. In this case, Americans band together against foreign groups they perceive as terrorists after suicide bombing makes them anxious about dying. In the way that terrorist groups that utilize suicide bombing are extreme, Americans as a group also become extreme in their anti-terrorist attitude. It becomes easier for them to view terrorists as deranged or immoral.
Perpetuation
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Terrorism potentially persists because people fail to understand the causes of suicide bombing, blaming personality instead of group processes. This misunderstanding allows opposing groups to continue upholding their extreme ideologies, attracting more members, acting out against each other and fostering an environment of political unrest.
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