April 19, 2002

Selfish Selflessness?

What motivates suicide bombers? Anger? Religious fervor? Nationalism? Desperation? We asked several experts to explain the suicide-bombing phenomenon, and why it has attracted so many volunteers.

Dipak Gupta, a professor of public administration and urban studies at San Diego State University and author of Path to Collective Madness: A Study in Social Order and Political Pathology (Praeger, 2001):

The term "suicide" by itself implies an extreme act of emotion. Therefore, it is

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