The psycho-religious mechanism behind suicide attacks: a mindsponge-based Bayesian statistical investigation and implications for the post-9/11 world

Regarding suicide, all major religions in the world share the principles of valuing and supporting life while respecting the dead. Many followers trust in religious teachings of mortality which promote peace and altruism. However, distorted extremists take advantage of such trust to recruit members for terroristic purposes through their propaganda. The current study explores the psycho-religious mechanism behind the suicide attacks by examining deeper into the suicidal ideation process. Bayesian analysis was performed on a multinational dataset of 268 university students in Japan. The results suggest that: (i) within religious students, those with a higher sense of connectedness tend to have lower suicidal ideation compared to those with a lower sense of connectedness. ; and (ii) within students who are more likely to seek help from religious leaders, those with a higher sense of connectedness tend to have lower suicidal ideation compared to those with a lower sense of connectedness. These findings suggest a complex psycho-religious mechanism of suicidal ideation. The results of conducted analyses are only for supporting the theorization of the mechanism of suicide-related information processing and in no way dealing with extremists’ thought processes (e.g., suicide bombers). The proposed mechanism explains how religious people may be at risk of being exploited by extremists. This manuscript is the fourth version of the study describing the logical framework and results of the study. Despite lacking many vital components, such as literature review, detailed explanation, and discussion of the results, we expect early reporting study’s results to provide a valuable way for understanding complex psycho-religious mechanisms behind the suicide bombers. More completed versions will be updated afterward.