To support and defend: A eusociality-based account of suicide in U.S. military service members and first responders.

Abstract

Humans are eusocial, a term used to describe “colony life” systems in highly social species. Eusocial features include specialized defense and cooperative care of the young, self-sacrificial characteristics that aid in the survival of the extended community. A eusociality-based perspective on suicide views suicide as a dysfunction of the self-sacrificial aspect of eusociality. We consider a eusociality-based conceptualization of suicide in military personnel and first responders, groups that may be characterized as eusocial defenders. Military personnel, veterans, and first responders display unique factors that may be associated with increased suicide risk and exhibit consistent behavioral, environmental, and temperamental traits. We conceptualize these traits considering a eusociality-based view and draw out implications for suicide prevention among military and first responder populations.

Ethological Problems with the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide

“…First, ethology (“the biological study of behavior”; Tinbergen, 1963, p. 411) is conceptually pertinent to IPTS (“a universal theory of human suicidal behavior”; Joiner et al, 2021, p. 4), and may be a useful perspective (Goldney, 2000). Second, several claims have been made concerning IPTS’s biological, especially evolutionary, credentials (e.g., Chiurliza et al, 2017; Joiner, 2005; Ringer et al, 2021; Van Orden et al, 2010). Notably, a “sociobiological extension” of IPTS (Joiner et al, 2017) is said to serve “as a foundation for observing human suicidality through an evolutionary lens” (Chiurliza et al, 2017, p. 87).…”

Eusociality, evolutionarily adaptive processes, and the emergence of suicidal behavior.

“…Despite the considerable influence of the interpersonal-psychological theory, however, studies guided by the model have provided only modest support for the theory's primary hypotheses (Chu et al, 2017). The eusocial perspective of military suicide, articulated by Ringer et al (2021), thereby reflects a much-needed attempt to update and/or refine existing theories to account for these limitations.…”