Choosing Death Over Survival: A Need to Identify Evolutionary Mechanisms Underlying Human Suicide.

Diya Chatterjee,Rishabh Rai

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.689022

Abstract

The act of killing self contradicts the central purpose of human evolution, that is, survival and propagation of one’s genetic material. Yet, it continues to be one of the leading causes of human death. A handful of theories in the realm of evolutionary psychology have attempted to explain human suicide. The current article analyses the major components of certain prominent viewpoints, namely, Inclusive fitness, Bargaining model, Pain-Brain model, Psychological aposematism, and few other perspectives. The article argues that relatively more weightage has been given to understanding ultimate (the “why”) rather than proximate (the “how”) functionality of suicidal acts. Evolutionary theorists have consistently pointed out that to comprehensively understand a trait or behavior, one needs to delineate not only how it supports survival but also the evolution of the mechanisms underlying the trait or behavior. Existing theories on suicide have primarily focused on its fitness benefits on surviving kin instead of providing evolutionary explanations of the more complex mechanisms leading up to such self-destructive motivations. Thus, the current paper attempts to highlight this gap in theorizing while suggesting probable proximate explanations of suicide which stresses the need to diffuse attention paid to fitness consequences of the act alone. We speculate that such explorations are needed in order to build a robust and comprehensive evolutionary theory of human suicide.

Highlights

The capacity to deliberately take one’s own life is perhaps one of the most distinctive acts that sets the human race apart
Analyzing Evolutionary Mechanisms Underlying Suicide it comes to understanding self-destructive motivations in cognitively and socially enriched organisms, such as humans
According to a recent review of internationally applicable definitions for suicidal behaviors, suicide can be defined as an individual act whose outcome is death or life-threatening state, may be driven by deliberate or unintentional motive to die (De Leo et al, 2021, p. 6–8)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The capacity to deliberately take one’s own life is perhaps one of the most distinctive acts that sets the human race apart. Even though other animals exhibit self-destructive behaviors, these acts have been attributed to objective factors Such factors may range from species-typical self-sacrificial behavior, for instance, in honey bee species (T. hyalinata) for the protection of their nest These seemingly self-destructive behaviors seen in non-human species have mostly been fit into the evolutionary explanation of kin selection, whereby organisms sacrifice their own lives to ensure closest kin’s survival and reproductive success Analyzing Evolutionary Mechanisms Underlying Suicide it comes to understanding self-destructive motivations in cognitively and socially enriched organisms, such as humans. The authors contemplate that a discourse on proximate psychological mechanisms underlying suicide, woven into an evolutionary framework, might provide the missing pieces to this puzzling human act. This paper is an outcome of preliminary thought processes and hopes to stimulate further relevant hypotheses and research endeavors

A Summary of Existing Theories

A Critique of Summarized Theories

Findings

CONCLUSION