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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science pp 1–3Cite as

Kin Selective Suicide

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Synonyms

Altruistic suicide

Definition

Suicide committed for the benefit of kin.

Introduction

Suicide, the voluntary surrender of life (or more exactly, in evolutionary terms, the surrender of the possibility of reproduction), is the ultimate sacrifice an individual can exercise on behalf of others. The Christian bible says “No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). The pervasive evidence on this extreme kind of sacrifice poses difficulties for superficial interpretations of evolutionary theory, but can be easily accommodated by kin selection and models of local interaction.

Altruistic Suicide: From Puzzle to Redefinition

Durkheim (1897) is probably the first social scientist that dedicated serious effort to defining and understanding altruistic suicide. He starts by documenting that, against common prejudice, suicide was not unknown or uncommon among primitive societies. Rather, egoistic suicide was indeed infrequent, but altruistic suicide...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University College of London, London, UK

    Antonio Cabrales

  2. Phoenix, AZ, UK

    Gregory B. Pollock

Authors
  1. Antonio Cabrales
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  2. Gregory B. Pollock
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Antonio Cabrales .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Cabrales, A., Pollock, G.B. (2016). Kin Selective Suicide. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_561-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_561-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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