title: The psychology of martyrdom: making the ultimate sacrifice in the name of a cause.
abstract: Martyrdom is defined as the psychological readiness to suffer and sacrifice one's life for a cause. An integrative set of 8 studies investigated the concept of martyrdom by creating a new tool to quantitatively assess individuals' propensity toward self-sacrifice. Studies 1A-1C consisted of psychometric work attesting to the scale's unidimensionality, internal consistency, and temporal stability while examining its nomological network. Studies 2A-2B focused on the scale's predictive validity, especially as it relates to extreme behaviors and suicidal terrorism. Studies 3-5 focused on the influence of self-sacrifice on automatic decision making, costly and altruistic behaviors, and morality judgments. Results involving more than 2,900 participants from different populations, including a terrorist sample, supported the proposed conceptualization of martyrdom and demonstrated its importance for a vast repertoire of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral phenomena. Implications and future directions for the psychology of terrorism are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Département de Psychologie.
authors.forename: Jocelyn J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Bélanger
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Carleton University.
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Caouette
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Keren
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sharvit
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Maryland.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dugas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000533:Altruism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D023481:Terrorism / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult