Economic and sociological analysis of suicide
There are many reasons why people commit suicide. People can
decide to commit suicide themselves or be pushed to do it. Most of the
factors, in reality can be explained by the Cost/benefit theory of
Economics of Human Behaviour which says that people will do anything until
Marginal costs will exceed Marginal benefits.
RELIGIOUS FACTOR - One of the most powerful social factors
determining a level of suicides is the religion. Since according to
Cost/benefit theory people try to minimize their costs while maximizing
benefits and will only do something if Marginal benefits exceed Marginal
costs. We can assume that if religious leaders would promise better life
and god’s forgiveness of all sins people committed, some people under
psychological stress would believe them and commit suicide since for the
expected benefits would exceed expected costs. This is widely practiced in
Islam. According to Islam to die for Allah is the greatest thing a living
Muslim can do.
In Judaism on the other hand, value of life is emphasized, and
consequently for the sake of preservation of life the devout Jews are
allowed to break all religious laws, except for refusal of the god, murder
and sexual relationship between relatives. The benefits of life are
emphasized in Judaism and for Jews costs of suicide are large than benefits
since belief in afterlife is not practiced.
In Christian countries it is a shame to attempt to destroy
yourself according to the words of Bible. People who attempted suicide
faced refusal of society to accept them and were buried on the edges of
cemeteries or by the roads when died. Thus social and religious costs of
committing suicide in those countries is very high and are greater than
benefits of facing God in Heaven. This is one of the main reasons of the
lowest level of suicides now in Italy, Spain and number of the Latin
American countries - the huge influence of Catholicism in these countries.
It is established by the modern researchers, that as a whole in countries,
where the influence of religion is weaker and religious norms connected in
particular with suicide are more humanely , the percentage of suicide
attempts is higher. Because in countries with high religious influence
God’s punishment for killing yourself is much higher and people are afraid
to “sin” by even thinking about suicide.
In World History there were a lot of people who had the gift of
persuasion. These people could persuade anyone to do anything and even
commit suicide. These individuals often gathered citizens under some idea,
attacked these citizens emotionally to break their will in order to gain
full control over the minds of these people. These evil masterminds often
attempted mass suicide in connection to some important “religious” date or
even public holiday. People believed these individuals because of the
promises of great benefits of dying or of simply belonging to some
particular religious group and rejecting the rest of the world. After some
time the perception of persuaded people was so greatly distorted that the
benefit of simply seeing ‘the master’ was unsurpassed by any of the cost
they might have incurred.
The cost of suicide also increases when considering public opinion
about suicide: “What will other people think of me? “. Traditional thought
would include God as one of “the other persons” who might have and express
disapproving attitudes[1]. Finally, attendance at religious services
potentially gives individuals access to a support network. Those without a
support network are most likely to commit suicide.[2] The support network
brings a lot of benefits to people, things like new friendships,
affiliation, understanding. This increased benefits of life compared to
benefits of suicide and made people change their mind to stay alive.
THE SOCIAL FACTORS - Other kind of suicide factors is directly
connected to the social reasons, is this case, public situation of any
group of people or concrete individual for many independent or personal
reasons is so hard and intolerable, in other words the cost of living
through another day becomes so high and exceeds benefits by such a great
amount that the suicide becomes the only real way to get free from
sufferings. Things that raise thoughts of suicide can be: Need of money and
work, need for affiliation, death of a beloved person, realization of being
unable to change things and never-ending struggle for existence. The rate
of suicide in the world can be reflected by the world economic stability.
During recessions many people loose their jobs and businesses and have to
sell their homes and are forced to follow poor style of life. In 1840-1850
the claim that suicide was an urban phenomenon in Paris and that it was
related to poverty and occurred more frequently among laboring poor were
repeated by many writers[3]. For these people not only emotional but also
monetary costs were enormous. This might have caused depression, sorrows
and have led to suicide attempts. It has also proven that in big cities
rate of suicide is much higher than in countryside. According to St. Thomas
Aquinas “Every man belongs to the community. Hence by killing himself he
injures the community”[4]. Thus, suicide of person imposes high marginal
cost on his friends and relatives. It is very important to us what other
people think of us and thus we will weight costs and benefits of dying
before attempting suicide.
Costs and benefits of love may be another social factor of
suicide. In Johann Goethe’s "The Sorrows of Young Werther" the main
character decides to die because the woman that he loves does not love him
back. For him the cost of realization that his expected benefits of being
together with her is very high and in addition to that the cost of seeing
her happy with someone else made the character to shoot himself, for him
that was the only way to stop his sorrows and the benefit of dying was much
higher for him at that point. Unfortunate love of Romeo and Juliet for
example led to their suicide, or in “Ethan Frome” the main character
decides to slide into a tree with his beloved woman when his wife refused
to let him go. For these characters the cost of living apart from each
other was so high that they decided to die to be together in another
life.[5] Finally many young people kill themselves every year because of
their love to some celebrity. Many attempt suicide after their object of
affection died or also committed suicide. They do so because of a high
expected benefit of being with him/ her in the afterlife and high cost of
living without that person in their lives. E.g. watching that person on TV
and realizing that he/she is gone. In the past, a person had to kill
himself/herself when his/her spouse died. Examples are: wife of a well-
known in the Roman history Caesar Brut swallowed pieces of burning coal
when she found out about death of her husband. In India the custom “sati” -
self-burning of the widow together with a body of the husband down to XIX
of century was not simply sample for imitation, but also obligatory
ritual[6]
PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS - such as depression and panic. Several studies in
recent years have suggested that people with panic disorder are more likely
to attempt suicide than patients with other psychiatric conditions. One
explanation was that panic disorder, when combined with clinical
depression, made people more prone to suicide[7]. "Depression is a very
significant predictor of whether or not a patient with panic disorder will
engage in some kind of suicide behavior. But depression alone doesn't
account for it all" said professor Brad Schmidt of University of Ohio[8].
The study also proved positive relationship between level of expected
anxiety and suicide attempts rate. For these people the cost of doing
virtually anything is risen by the level of worry and if for a long time,
marginal cost of living through another day is much higher than benefits,
people can decide to voluntary leave this world.
Another factor is human pride and self-honor. In some countries like Japan
and Korea honor is very important self perception, especially for men.
There is still a tradition of “hara-kiri”, voluntary self-destruction
because of failure to complete some family or social obligation. For men
who “failed” the cost of living with their “failure” was too high. They
couldn’t look into the eyes of people who they failed and the only solution
that was considered was “hara-kiri”. The benefit of escaping from shame
was so high that these men ( mostly soldiers- samurai) did not even think
about physical pain and pain of their friends and relatives. During war
times high ranked soldiers were given a chance to kill themselves in order
to save their honor and die like a hero.
METHODS AND TRENDS OF SUICIDE
Methods used to commit suicide vary on sex and regional bases.
E.g. death by firearms is more common in rural areas where the availability
of guns is higher.[9] People attempt to lower the cost of the actual
effort, thus use methods that are available to them immediately instead of
spending time and money and other resources. The most common non-fatal
suicide attempts in both sexes are drug overdoses and poisonings[10]. There
are differences in the spread of rate of suicide depending on age: The
facts about senior people are clear: the illnesses and loneliness, decline
of vital forces and absence of iridescent hopes better condition of a body
and spirit cause dramatic emotions "of socially active old age ". At this
age the choice is between battling an increasing avalanche of diseases and
illnesses or intentional death. Eventhough there are some benefits (e.g.
watching grandchildren grow), the cost of living is much higher. Thus the
tradeoff between life and death is not so large. Factors such as social
pressures, rejection of people in the same social group, e.g. classmates,
work partners, etc. are major causes of suicide among middle age and youth.
Young people can sometimes commit suicide just because of a disagreement
inside family.
BIBLIOGRAPHY / RESOURCES
1. “A handbook for the study of suicide” edited by Seymour Perlin. Oxford
University Press (1975)
2. “Suicide and Homicide” Andrew F. Henry and James F. Short Jr. The Free
Press, New York ( 1968)
3.
http://mentalhealth.about.com/library/sci/1001/blpanicsuicide1001.htm?iam=s
avvy&terms=%2Bsuicide+%2Bfactors . The Study by the professors of the Ohio
University
4. www.religioustolerance.org Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
5. www.befrienders.org/info/statistics.htm . Befrienders International
Suicide Statistics
6. www.statcan.ca/english/Pgdb/People/Health/health01.html Suicides, and
suicide rate by sex and by age group at Statistics Canada.
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[1] “A Handbook of the study of suicide” edited by Seymour Perlin, pg. 62
[2] Quoted from http://www.religioustolerance.org/sui_reli.htm
[3] “A Handbook of the study of suicide” edited by Seymour Perlin, pg. 22
[4] “A Handbook of the study of suicide” edited by Seymour Perlin, pg. 67
[5] Conclusions are based on the stories of “Ethan Frome”,
“Romeo and Juliet” and “The Sorrows of Young Werther”
[6] Information is taken from Ancient history books
[7] From:
http://mentalhealth.about.com/library/sci/1001/blpanicsuicide1001.htm?iam=sa
vvy&terms=%2Bsuicide+%2Bfactors
Study by Ohio University
[8]
http://mentalhealth.about.com/library/sci/1001/blpanicsuicide1001.htm?iam=sa
vvy&terms=%2Bsuicide+%2Bfactors
[9] www.religioustolerance.org
[10] www.religioustolerance.org
