Dying for the cause: The rationality of martyrs, suicide bombers and self-immolators | Zendy

Greenland Andrew | Zendy; Proulx Damon | Zendy; Savage David A | Zendy

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Dying for the cause: The rationality of martyrs, suicide bombers and self-immolators

Author(s) -

Greenland Andrew,

Proulx Damon,

Savage David A

Publication year - 2020

Publication title -

rationality and society

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 0.406

H-Index - 46

eISSN - 1461-7358

pISSN - 1043-4631

DOI - 10.1177/1043463119900327

Subject(s) - rationality , afterlife , stochastic game , expected utility hypothesis , social psychology , psychology , sociology , epistemology , economics , philosophy , mathematical economics

This article explores the impact that belief in an infinite afterlife has on end-of-life decisions, specifically on those viewed at the extreme, such as martyrs, suicide bombers and self-immolators. We extend a simplified expected utility-based model to include variations of infinitely rewarding afterlife’s and explore how this may impact the expected utility and rationality of earthly actions and decisions of individuals when the expected utility payoff is infinite. We show that the decision process for suicide and euthanasia is closely linked to martyrs, suicide bombers and self-immolators, such that all these individuals make rational decisions to regards to the end of their own life.

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