Understanding Suicide Terrorism: Premature Dismissal of the Religious-Belief Hypothesis: Commentary on Ginges, J., Hansen, I., and Norenzayan, A. (2009). Religion and support for suicide attacks. Psychological Science, 20, 224–230

Evolutionary Psychology

James R. Liddle¹ 

关键词: suicide terrorism;    religious belief;    evolutionary psychology;   

DOI  :  10.1177/147470491000800302

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Sage Journals

【 摘 要 】

We comment on work by Ginges, Hansen, and Norenzayan (2009), in which they compare two hypotheses for predicting individual support for suicide terrorism: the religious-belief hypothesis and the coalitional-commitment hypothesis. Although we appreciate the evidence provided in support of the coalitional-commitment hypothesis, we argue that their method of testing the religious-belief hypothesis is conceptually flawed, thus calling into question their conclusion that the religious-belief hypothesis has been disconfirmed. In addition to critiquing the methodology implemented by Ginges et al., we provide suggestions on how the religious-belief hypothesis may be properly tested. It is possible that the premature and unwarranted conclusions reached by Ginges et al. may deter researchers from examining the effect of specific religious beliefs on support for terrorism, and we hope that our comments can mitigate this possibility.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC