Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA.
Hum Nat. 2019 Mar;30(1):117-141. doi: 10.1007/s12110-018-9333-3.
Lethal and nonlethal suicidal behaviors are major global public health problems. Much suicidal behavior (SB) occurs after the suicide victim committed a murder or other serious transgression. The present study tested a novel evolutionary model termed the Costly Apology Model (CAM) against the ethnographic record. The bargaining model (BRM) sees nonlethal suicidal behavior as an evolved costly signal of need in the wake of adversity. Relying on this same theoretical framework, the CAM posits that nonlethal suicidal behavior can sometimes serve as an honest signal of apology in the wake of committing a severe transgression, thereby repairing valuable social relationships. To test this hypothesis, the CAM was operationalized into a set of variables, and two independent coders coded 473 text records on suicidal behavior from 53 cultures from the probability sample of the Human Relations Area Files. The results indicated that in ethnographic accounts of suicidal behavior, transgressions, punishment, and shame were relatively common, supporting the CAM, but explicit motives to apologize and evidence of forgiveness were rare, contrary to the CAM. The theoretical variables of the CAM nevertheless formed a cluster distinct from the BRM, and a subset of cases of suicidal behavior were largely related to transgressions and other CAM variables rather than BRM or other variables. Support for the CAM varied widely across cultures, but there was evidence for it in every major geographical region. Exploratory analyses suggested that the CAM is potentially more likely to occur in response to severe conflicts concerning transgressions committed against nonkin. Furthermore, in text records that involved transgressions, male suicidal behavior was most frequently associated with murder, whereas female suicidal behavior was most frequently associated with sexual transgressions. In conclusion, the results provided mixed support for the hypothesis that some instances of suicidal behavior function to send a costly signal of apology to those harmed by a transgression.
致命和非致命的自杀行为是全球主要的公共卫生问题。许多自杀行为（SB）发生在自杀者实施谋杀或其他严重犯罪之后。本研究根据民族志记录，对一种称为代价高昂道歉模型（CAM）的新进化模型进行了测试。讨价还价模型（BRM）将非致命性自杀行为视为逆境后需要的一种进化代价高昂的信号。基于相同的理论框架，CAM 假设非致命性自杀行为有时可以作为在犯下严重罪行后的诚实道歉信号，从而修复有价值的社会关系。为了检验这一假设，CAM 被转化为一组变量，两名独立的编码员对来自人类关系档案概率样本中的 53 种文化的 473 个自杀行为文本记录进行了编码。结果表明，在自杀行为的民族志描述中，犯罪、惩罚和耻辱相对常见，支持了 CAM，但明确的道歉动机和宽恕的证据很少，这与 CAM 相反。CAM 的理论变量仍然形成了与 BRM 不同的聚类，并且自杀行为的一部分主要与犯罪和其他 CAM 变量有关，而不是 BRM 或其他变量。CAM 在不同文化中的支持程度差异很大，但在每个主要地理区域都有证据表明它的存在。探索性分析表明，CAM 更有可能在涉及对非亲属犯下的犯罪的严重冲突中发生。此外，在涉及犯罪的文本记录中，男性自杀行为最常与谋杀有关，而女性自杀行为最常与性犯罪有关。总之，结果为某些自杀行为作为对受到犯罪伤害的人的代价高昂的道歉信号的假设提供了混合支持。
