The evolution of pain and associated anxiety, depression, and suicide was profoundly impacted by predation
Abstract
Predation is a powerful evolutionary selection pressure, but its roles in shaping human behavior are not understood. Predators often injure prey in unsuccessful attacks, and they selectively target injured and otherwise impaired prey. Injury commonly causes anxiety-like hypervigilance, which has been shown in squid to increase survival from predatory attack. It also induces persistent hyperactivity of primary nociceptors, which in mammals drives pain and anxiety. In social mammals and some eusocial insects, injury can elicit group antipredator defense and woundtending responses, usually from closely related kin. Accelerated evolution of affective pain is proposed to have occurred in social mammals to facilitate communication of need for support. This function probably evolved rapidly in hominins because of the abundance of large predators and the necessity of cooperative group defense for otherwise relatively defenseless individuals. Affective pain and its empathetic recognition by group members became increasingly useful as cooperative protection and care facilitated the recovery of temporarily incapacitated members to help the group. Such social functions may explain unusual human nociceptor properties that promote persistent pain. When hominin groups were small and predatory threat relentless, the value to the group of each member would have been high. Severe pain and depression could indicate to a member their incapacity and burden to the group, potentially motivating suicidal behavior, while ready access to predators would have made suicide easy. Thus, suicide motivated by intolerable pain and depression could have been under positive selection (genetic and cultural) in cooperative bands of hominins living alongside dangerous predators.
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BibTeX
@misc{walters2026evolution,
title = {{The evolution of pain and associated anxiety, depression, and suicide was profoundly impacted by predation}},
author = {Edgar T. Walters},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/r4eb7_v2},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/r4eb7_v2/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The evolution of pain and associated anxiety, depression, and suicide was profoundly impacted by predation
AU - Edgar T. Walters
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/r4eb7_v2
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/r4eb7_v2/
AB - Predation is a powerful evolutionary selection pressure, but its roles in shaping human behavior are not understood. Predators often injure prey in unsuccessful attacks, and they selectively target injured and otherwise impaired prey. Injury commonly causes anxiety-like hypervigilance, which has been shown in squid to increase survival from predatory attack. It also induces persistent hyperactivity of primary nociceptors, which in mammals drives pain and anxiety. In social mammals and some eusocial insects, injury can elicit group antipredator defense and woundtending responses, usually from closely related kin. Accelerated evolution of affective pain is proposed to have occurred in social mammals to facilitate communication of need for support. This function probably evolved rapidly in hominins because of the abundance of large predators and the necessity of cooperative group defense for otherwise relatively defenseless individuals. Affective pain and its empathetic recognition by group members became increasingly useful as cooperative protection and care facilitated the recovery of temporarily incapacitated members to help the group. Such social functions may explain unusual human nociceptor properties that promote persistent pain. When hominin groups were small and predatory threat relentless, the value to the group of each member would have been high. Severe pain and depression could indicate to a member their incapacity and burden to the group, potentially motivating suicidal behavior, while ready access to predators would have made suicide easy. Thus, suicide motivated by intolerable pain and depression could have been under positive selection (genetic and cultural) in cooperative bands of hominins living alongside dangerous predators.
ER -