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.
AlighieriD (2017) The Divine Comedy. Toronto, ON: Aegitas Publishing House.
2.
AtrS (2004) Mishandling suicide terrorism. The Washington Quarterly27(3): 65–90.
3.
BarnettR (2012) Political self-immolation in Tibet: causes and influences. Revue d’Etudes Tibetaines25: 41–64.
4.
BellahRN (2005) Civil religion in America. Daedalus134(4): 40–55.
5.
BenmelechEBerrebiC (2007) Human capital and the productivity of suicide bombers. Journal of Economic Perspectives21(3): 223–238.
6.
BenmelechEBerrebiCKlorEF (2012) Economic conditions and the quality of suicide terrorism. The Journal of Politics74(1): 113–128.
7.
BennettO (2011) Strategic canonisation: sanctity, popular culture and the Catholic Church. International Journal of Cultural Policy17(4): 438–455.
8.
BerkoA (2007) The Path to Paradise: The Inner World of Suicide Bombers and Their Dispatchers. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group.
9.
BermanELaitinDD (2008) Religion, terrorism and public goods: testing the club model. Journal of Public Economics92(10–11): 1942–1967.
10.
BerrebiC (2009) The economics of terrorism and counterterrorism: what matters and is rational choice theory helpful? In: CraiginKDavisPK (eds) Social Science for Counterterrorism: Putting the Pieces Together. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, pp. 189–190.
11.
BerrebiCKlorEF (2006) On terrorism and electoral outcomes: theory and evidence from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Journal of Conflict Resolution50(6): 899–925.
12.
CaplanB (2006) Terrorism: the relevance of the rational choice model. Public Choice128(1–2): 91–107.
13.
ChristieN (2001) The origins of suffixed invocations of God’s curse on the Franks in Muslim sources for the Crusades. Arabica48(2): 254–266.
14.
Cohn-SherbokD (1978) The Jewish doctrine of hell. Religion8(2): 196–209.
15.
DuBoisT (1999) Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
16.
DurkheimE (2005) Suicide: A Study in Sociology. London: Taylor & Francis.
17.
EckersleyRM (2007) Culture, spirituality, religion and health: looking at the big picture. Medical Journal of Australia186: 54–56.
18.
EdwardsAT (1985) Achilles in the underworld: Iliad, Odyssey, and Aethiopis. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies26(3): 215–227.
19.
ElsterJ (2005) Suicide missions: motivations and beliefs. In: GambettaD (ed.) Making Sense of Suicide Missions. Oxford; London: Oxford University Press, pp. 233–258.
20.
FreyBSSavageDATorglerB (2010) Noblesse oblige? Determinants of survival in a life and death situation. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization74(1): 1–11.
21.
GunaratnaR (2002) Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror. New York: Columbia University Press.
22.
HafezMM (2006) Rationality, culture, and structure in the making of suicide bombers: a preliminary theoretical synthesis and illustrative case study. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism29(2): 165–185.
23.
HamermeshDSSossNM (1974) An economic theory of suicide. The Journal of Political Economy82(1): 83–98.
24.
HarrisonM (2006) An economist looks at suicide terrorism. World Economics7(3): 1–15.
25.
HoffmanB (1998) Inside Terrorism. New York: Columbia University Press.
26.
IannacconeLR (2006) The market for martyrs. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion2(4): 1–28.
27.
KahnemanDTverskyA (1979) Prospect theory: an analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica47(2): 263.
28.
KruegerAB (2008) What makes a homegrown terrorist? Human capital and participation in domestic Islamic terrorist groups in the U.S.A. Economic Letters101(3): 293–296.
29.
KruegerABLaitinDD (2007) Kto kogo? A cross-country study of the origins and targets of terrorism. In: KeeferPLoayzaN (eds) Terrorism, Economic Development, and Political Openness. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 148–173.
30.
KruegerABMalečkováJ (2003) Education, poverty and terrorism: is there a causal connection?Journal of Economic Perspectives17(4): 119–144.
31.
KruglanskiAWChenXDechesneM, et al. (2009) Fully committed: suicide bombers’ motivation and the quest for personal significance. Political Psychology30(3): 331–357.
32.
KyddAHWalterBF (2006) The strategies of terrorism. International Security31(1): 49–80.
33.
LankfordA (2014) A suicide-based typology of suicide terrorists: conventional, coerced, escapist, and indirect. Security Journal27(1): 80–96.
34.
LeemansJ (2000) ‘Schoolrooms for our souls’. The cult of the martyrs: homilies and visual representations as a locus for religious education in late antiquity. Paedagogica Historica36(1): 112–127.
35.
LennonC (2000) The beatified martyrs of Ireland (8). Irish Theological Quarterly65(4): 353–361.
36.
LesterDYangBLindsayM (2004) Suicide bombers: are psychological profiles possible?Studies in Conflict and Terrorism27(4): 283–295.
37.
LindowJLindowJ (2002) Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Santa Barbara, CA: Oxford University Press.
38.
MacEvittC (2010) The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
39.
MartyME (1982) Religion in America since Mid-century. Daedalus111(1): 149–163.
40.
MerariA (2010) Driven to Death: Psychological and Social Aspects of Suicide Terrorism. Oxford; London: Oxford University Press.
41.
MossCR (2012) Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
42.
Ohnuki-TierneyE (2010) Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
43.
OnoSWoodardWP (2011) Shinto the Kami Way. Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing.
44.
PedahzurAPerligerAWeinbergL (2003) Altruism and fatalism: the characteristics of Palestinian suicide terrorists. Deviant Behavior24(4): 405–423.
45.
PhelpsMW (2015) Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America’s First Spy. Lebanon, NH: ForeEdge – University Press of New England.
46.
Riley-SmithJ (2002) Christian violence and the crusades. In: AbulafiaASCavendishL (eds) Religious Violence between Christians and Jews. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 3–20.
47.
RosendorffPBSandlerT (2010) Suicide terrorism and the backlash effect. Defence and Peace Economics21(5–6): 443–457.
48.
SavageDA (2016) Those left behind: euthanasia, suicide and other regarding preferences. Rationality and Society28(4): 439–452.
49.
SavageDATorglerB (2013) The emergence of emotions and religious sentiments during the September 11 disaster. Motivation and Emotion37(3): 586–599.
50.
SavageDATorglerB (2015) The Times They Are a Changin’: The Effect of Institutional Change on Cooperative Behaviour at 26,000ft Over Sixty Years. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillian.
51.
SegalC (2018) Antigone: death and love, Hades and Dionysus. In: NagyG (ed.) Greek Literature in the Classical Period: The Poetics of Drama in Athens. Abingdon; London: Routledge, pp. 158–225.
52.
SinghS (2019) Easter attacks in Sri Lanka. Economic & Political Weekly54(20): 12–14.
53.
StackSKposowaAJ (2016) Culture and suicide acceptability: a cross-national, multilevel analysis. The Sociological Quarterly57(2): 282–303.
54.
StarkR (1996) The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
55.
TalbertJAScott-KilvertI (2005) Plutarch on Sparta. Westminster: Penguin Books.
56.
TembyQ (2019) Cells, factions and suicide operatives: the fragmentation of militant Islamism in the Philippines Post-Marawi. Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs41(1): 114–137.
57.
ThayerBAHudsonVM (2010) Sex and the shaheed: insights from the life sciences on Islamic suicide terrorism. International Security34(4): 37–62.
58.
University of Chicago (2016) Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST). Available at: https://cpost.uchicago.edu/ (accessed 20 November 2018).
59.
Van UmE (2011) Discussing concepts of terrorist rationality: implications for counterterrorism policy. Defence and Peace Economics22(2): 161–179.
60.
WalkerGC (2000) Secular eschatology: beliefs about afterlife. OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying41(1): 5–22.
61.
WilhiteDE (2011) Tertullian the African: An Anthropological Reading of Tertullian’s Context and Identities, vol. 14. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
62.
WilliamsPL (2002) Al Qaeda: Brotherhood of Terror. New York: Alpha Books.
63.
WintrobeR (2003) Can Suicide Bombers Be Rational?Cambridge; London: Cambridge University Press.
64.
WintrobeR (2006) Extremism, suicide terror, and authoritarianism. Public Choice128(1–2): 169–195.
65.
YangMM (2011) Still burning: self-immolation as photographic protest. Quarterly Journal of Speech97(1): 1–25.
