Synonyms
Definition
Some theorists have contended that suicide terrorists are low-status males who are younger in age and have poor mating prospects.
Introduction
The data indicate that suicide attackers tend to be young males in their early twenties. Statistics on Middle Eastern suicide terrorists reveal that the mean age of attackers is 21 with an age range of 12–64 (Benmelech et al. 2012).
Theoretical Considerations
Kanazawa (2007) and Thayer and Hudson (2010) argued that the condoning of polygyny in the Middle East places pressure on young males who lack social status and capital relative to older males to enact violent means to obtain mates via sexual access manipulations (Kanazawa 2007). Though competition among males increases risk-taking behavior, Kanazawa’s hypothesis is theoretically untenable and is not supported empirically. Lawson et al. (2008) countered that in contexts where older males monopolize females such as gerontocratic societies males should...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Atran, S. (2003). Genesis of suicide terrorism. Science, 299(5612), 1534–1539.
Benmelech, E., Berrebi, C., & Klor, E. F. (2012). Economic conditions and the quality of suicide terrorism. Journal of Politics, 74(1), 113–128.
Hafez, M. M. (2006). Rationality, culture, and structure in the making of suicide bombers: A preliminary theoretical synthesis and illustrative case study. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 29(2), 165–185.
Hamilton, W. D. (1963). The evolution of altruistic behavior. The American Naturalist, 97(896), 354–356.
Kanazawa, S. (2007). The evolutionary psychological imagination: Why you can’t get a date on a Saturday night and why most suicide bombers are Muslim. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 1(1), 7.
Lawson, D. W., Jordan, F. M., & Magid, K. (2008). On sex and suicide bombing: An evaluation of Kanazawa’s ‘evolutionary psychological imagination’. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 6(1), 73–84.
Liddle, J. R., Bush, L. S., & Shackelford, T. K. (2011). An introduction to evolutionary psychology and its application to suicide terrorism. Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression, 3(3), 176–197.
Qirko, H. N. (2004). “Fictive kin” and suicide terrorism. Science, 304(5667), 49–51.
Qirko, H. N. (2009). Altruism in suicide terror organizations. Zygon®, 44(2), 289–322.
Smith, E. A. (2004). Why do good hunters have higher reproductive success? Human Nature, 15(4), 343–364.
Thayer, B. A., & Hudson, V. M. (2010). Sex and the Shaheed: Insights from the life sciences on Islamic suicide terrorism. International Security, 34(4), 37–62.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Syme, K. (2018). Young. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_592-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_592-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences