title: The morality of martyrdom and the stigma of suicide.
abstract: While primarily identifying similarities between suicide terrorists and other suicidal individuals, Lankford also notes differences in how their actions are morally evaluated. Specifically, "conventional" suicide is stigmatized in a way that suicide terrorism is not. We identify the root of this condemnation, showing that suicide is intuitively considered impure and disgusting, and discuss implications of this purity-based stigma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215. rottman@bu.edu http://www.joshuarottman.com
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rottman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215. dkelemen@bu.edu www.bu.edu/childcognition
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kelemen
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology*; D023481:Terrorism / Q000523:psychology*