The lure of death: Suicide and human evolution

Abstract

At some point in evolutionary history, human beings came to understand, as no non-human animals do, that death brings to an end a person's bodily and mental presence in the world. A potentially devastating consequence was that individuals, seeking to escape physical or mental pain, might choose to kill themselves. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals'.