Following the assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald J. Trump by 20-year-old Pennsylvania resident Thomas Crooks, a question emblazoned on front pages of major world newspapers was: What were the shooter’s motives? Why did he choose to throw his life away to perpetrate a heinous act of violence? While an assassination attempt against a former president and current presidential contender is particularly attention-grabbing, the very same question is raised time and time again after each mass shooting, of which there were already 302 in the U.S. in 2024 to date.

The specifics of Crooks’ case are of abiding human interest, to be sure. They likely involve a sad tale of suffering, torment, and exclusion—some people who knew him have attested how he was bullied and isolated in high school—as well as Crooks’ value confusion. (Reportedly a registered Republican, he apparently also made a contribution to a liberal cause.) Yet more general answers are needed to understand what motivates assassinations and shootings in America in the first place, and why some people are willing to risk everything for it.

Answers to these questions center on the distinction between ends (the why) and the means to those ends (the how). The ultimate end of shootings, psychological research reveals, is people’s basic quest for significance and mattering, the “mother” of all social motivations. A shooting event with multiple casualties lends the perpetrator the image of someone with a “life or death”........

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