Person:

Sheehy-Skeffington, Jennifer Anne

The psychology of suicide terrorism involves more than simply the psychology of suicide. Individual differences in Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) interact with socio-structural, political context to produce support for group-based dominance among members of both dominant and subordinate groups. This may help explain why, in one specific context, some people commit and endorse terrorism, while others do not.

Where one stands in society matters for how one feels, thinks, and behaves. This dissertation provides evidence for this claim from the perspective of universal psychological mechanisms used to navigate the social world. It argues that in order to understand the behavioral dimension of poverty, inequality, and social hierarchy, one must consider basic mechanisms sensitive to status, power, and coalitions.