It has been thought that suicide terrorists are not psychologically different from other terrorists, but your latest research on Palestinian would-be bombers who failed to blow themselves up suggests otherwise. What did you find?
They seem to have certain personality characteristics that make them more likely to be recruited to or to volunteer for suicide-bombing missions. None of the 15 would-be suicide bombers we interviewed suffered from a psychosis, but they had one of two personality types. Two-thirds were dependent-avoidant: such people find it hard to say no to authority figures and are more likely to cooperate to carry out…
