Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m8s7h Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T23:59:53.571Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Self-sacrifice for a cause: The role of ideas and beliefs in motivating human conflict

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Jeremy Ginges
Affiliation:
New School for Social Research, New York, NY 10011. [email protected]@newschool.eduhttps://www.newschool.edu/nssr/faculty/Jeremy-Ginges/
Crystal Shackleford
Affiliation:
New School for Social Research, New York, NY 10011. [email protected]@newschool.eduhttps://www.newschool.edu/nssr/faculty/Jeremy-Ginges/

Abstract

The role of ideas and beliefs is generally underplayed in Whitehouse's account. However, just as people may feel that their identity is fused with a collective, they may also feel that their identity is fused with an idea (god, history, justice), which can motivate the same type of behaviors that Whitehouse seeks to explain.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atran, S. & Ginges, J. (2012) Religious and sacred imperatives in human conflict. Science 336(6083):855–57.Google Scholar
Bélanger, J. J., Caouette, J., Sharvit, K. & Dugas, M. (2014) The psychology of martyrdom: Making the ultimate sacrifice in the name of a cause. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 107(3):494515. doi: 10.1037/a0036855.Google Scholar
Dumbach, A. & Newborn, J. (2017) Sophie Scholl and the white rose. Oneworld.Google Scholar
Ginges, J. (1997) Deterring the terrorist: A psychological evaluation of different strategies for deterring terrorism. Terrorism and Political Violence 9(1):170–85.Google Scholar
Ginges, J. & Atran, S. (2011) War as a moral imperative (not just practical politics by other means). Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences 278(1720):2930–38.Google Scholar
Ginges, J., Atran, S., Medin, D. & Shikaki, K. (2007) Sacred bounds on rational resolution of violent political conflict. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104(18):7357–60.Google Scholar
Ginges, J., Atran, S., Sachdeva, S. & Medin, D. (2011) Psychology out of the laboratory: The challenge of violent extremism. The American Psychologist 66(6):5019.Google Scholar
Gómez, A., López-Rodríguez, L., Sheikh, H., Ginges, J., Wilson, L., Waziri, H., Vázquez, A., Davis, R. & Atran, S. (2017) The devoted actor's will to fight and the spiritual dimension of human conflict. Nature Human Behaviour 1(9):673–79. doi: 10.1038/s41562-017-0193-3.Google Scholar
Kruglanski, A. W., Bélanger, J. J., Gelfand, M., Gunaratna, R., Hettiarachchi, M., Reinares, F., Orehek, E., Sasota, J. & Sharvit, K. (2013) Terrorism – A (self) love story: Redirecting the significance quest can end violence. American Psychologist 68(7):559–75.Google Scholar
Marean, C. W. (2015) An evolutionary anthropological perspective on modern human origins. Annual Review of Anthropology 44:533–56.Google Scholar
Rai, T. S. & Fiske, A. P. (2011) Moral psychology is relationship regulation: moral motives for unity, hierarchy, equality, and proportionality. Psychological Review 118(1):5775.Google Scholar
Smith, D., Schlaepfer, P., Major, K., Dyble, M., Page, A. E., Thompson, J., Chaudhary, N., Saladi, G. D., Mace, R., Astete, L., Ngales, M., Vinicius, L. & Migliano, A. B. (2017) Cooperation and the evolution of hunter–gatherer storytelling. Nature Communications 8(1853):19.Google Scholar
Sprinzak, E. (1990) The psychopolitical formation of extreme left terrorism in a democracy: The case of the Weathermen. In: Origins of terrorism: Psychologies, ideologies, theologies, states of mind, ed. Reich, W., pp. 6585. Woodrow Wilson Center Press.Google Scholar