VALUES, EMPATHY, AND FAIRNESS ACROSS SOCIAL BARRIERS Lethal Altruists Itineraries along the Dark Outskirts of Moralistic Prosociality Adolf Tobe˜ na Autonomous University of Barcelona, Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, Bellaterra Barcelona, Spain 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 an- other 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 coopera- tive 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, bold- ness, aggressiveness, machiavellianism, narcissism, messianism, credulity/religiosity) that may also contribute to the different roles played by self-recruited members in com- bative cells that in turn are crucial for the ties they establish and the tactics employed. Individually oriented research may reveal profiles distinguishing between potential in- ducers 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. Key words: altruism; costly punishment; suicidal attacks; temperament; leadership; followership “Selfishness beats altruism within groups. Altruistic groups beat selfish groups. Everything else is commentary.” 45 On March 2003, Scott Atran published in Sci- ence an influential essay titled “Genesis of Sui- cide Terrorism”. 1 At that time suicidal attacks had created deep alarm across Western coun- tries to the point of dominating the strategic scenario. The strong apprehension only started to fade years later when it was clear that the launch of those onerous weapons by Islamic Address for correspondence: Adolf Tobe˜ na, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine Campus of Bellaterra, Bellaterra Barcelona 08193, Spain. Voice: +34935812783; fax: 34935811435. adolf.tobena@uab.es guerrillas would not shake the military options and status held by the big powers. Atran’s ap- proach was, by far, the best after the deluge of perplexed and mainly misguided interpre- tations that followed the September 11, 2001, attacks on the USA. On the grounds of sound data gathered in Palestine, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, Atran claimed that suicidal attackers “had no appreciable psychopathol- ogy and were as educated and well-off as the surrounding populations.” He attributed the main responsibility to “recruiting organizations that enlist prospective candidates from youth- ful populations” and characterized the roots of the phenomenon as “loyalty towards an inti- mate cohort of peers which charismatic trainers Values, Empathy, and Fairness across Social Barriers: Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1167: 5–15 (2009). doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04542.x c  2009 New York Academy of Sciences. 5