People still do it for that sense of group approval:
Suicide attacks—today most often associated with acts against Americans or Israelis by Muslims—seem to be one aspect of a wider phenomenon in which collective religious ritual fosters a mindset known as parochial altruism, according to psychologists. Parochial altruism is a combination of negative attitudes toward another social group and sacrifice for one’s own.
Suicide attacks would be an extreme form of parochial altruism, said the psychologists who conducted the study, from the New School for Social Research in New York and the University of British Columbia. And when forms of parochial altruism other than suicide attacks were considered, the researchers found many cultures and religions followed the pattern identified in the Middle East.
This “parochial altruism” explains many dysfunctional behaviors in our own society, like ethnocide, which is probably why our media and pundits foam at the mouth when talking about Islam.
