As stated in Arthur Miller's The Evolution of Evil, "Killing may inflict more momentous fitness costs on a victim than any other single act". Of course no one reading this blog would know for certain whether or not being murdered is a pleasant experience since we're all quite alive but most of us can guess that it is not a positive thing. From an evolutionary point of view, murder prevents the victim from reproducing and therefore cannot pass on his/her genes. In addition, the survival of the victim's family is threatened since the victim can no longer provide for them.A murder can also be categorized as more or less 'allowable' if the costs inflicted are equal to the benefits received, such as killing someone in self-defense. Then there is the other end of the spectrum, inflicting great costs for small gains, better known as an evil act.
In the case of a suicide bomber/jihadist, the individual is both perpetrator and victim. The murder and the murdered...
If killing inflicts the greatest fitness cost upon a person, then why are people flocking to become suicide bombers in places such as Israel and Iraq? Why are these people willing to pay a such a great cost- their life- in exchange for such a small gain? Is destroying 'the other' more valuable than one's own life?
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