Atran defines “sacred values” as moral imperatives driving behavior “independently of concrete material goals.” Political actors committing to a sacred cause make costly sacrifices, including dying.”

Decisions based on sacred values, such as whether to become a suicide bomber, follow a rule-bound logic of moral appropriateness & absolutist thinking that “defies the cost-benefit calculations and means-end logic of realpolitik.”

Sacred values differ from instrumental values. Suicide bombers make extreme sacrifices “all out of proportion to likely prospects of success.”