Lethal altruists: itineraries along the dark outskirts of moralistic prosociality

Suicide bombers are the most spectacular example of an impregnable morality toward one's own group that co-exists alongside a radical amorality toward members of another group. Suicide bombers carry out massacres with the utter conviction that they are acting in accordance with values associated with the greatest good. Suicidal attacks are conceived as a form of lethal altruism, a damaging drift from human cooperative tendencies and one that requires a detailed understanding. Strong altruism is a main component of a cluster of temperamental traits that may distinguish individuals with propensities to put themselves at the threshold of major progroupal sacrifices. Among all populations there will be pockets of extreme moralizing altruists willing to make high investments in others, investments involving great personal risk. A research framework is outlined to study other constitutionally based traits (dominance, boldness, aggressiveness, machiavellianism, narcissism, messianism, credulity/religiosity) that may also contribute to the different roles played by self-recruited members in combative cells that in turn are crucial for the ties they establish and the tactics employed. Individually oriented research may reveal profiles distinguishing between potential inducers and performers of martyrdom. As a rule, machiavellistic leaders do not usually squander their personal choices on group commitments; on the contrary, their gift for simulating altruism is used for individual gains. Potential martyrs, on the other hand, are by definition squanderers. Evidence accrued in recent years in fields going from behavioral economics to cognitive neuroimaging makes such an endeavor feasible.