Explaining social behavior in response to death-related threats: The conspecific loss compensation mechanism

Exposure to death-related threats, thoughts and cues (actual or anticipated death of conspecifics, including oneself) remain powerful stressors across primate species, including humans. Accordingly, a pervasive issue in psychology pertains to the kind of social–cognitive responses exposure to deadly threats generates. To this day, psychological models of reactions to death-related threats remain underspecified, especially with regards to modern evolutionary theory. Research on both humans and nonhuman primates’ reactions to death-related threats highlights a general tendency of human and nonhuman primates to “cling to the group” and to display increased social motivation in the face of death and deadly events (predator attacks, disasters, terror attacks.. .). Given the adaptive value of social networks, which provide individuals with resources, mating pool and support, we propose the existence of an evolved mechanism to explain these affiliative responses. In particular, we propose a “conspecific loss compensation mechanism” (CLCM) that actively keeps track of and compensates for threats to the integrity of one’s social network. In the face of death-related cues signaling a danger for one’s social network, or actual conspecific loss, CLCM triggers proportional affiliative responses by a process labeled compensatory socialization. After reviewing existing evidence for the CLCM, we discuss its plausibility, parsimonious character, and explanatory power of the diversity of responses observed among threatened and grieving individuals. We also formulate clear and novel predictions to be tested in future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)Public Significance Statement—Research on responses to death-related threats (loss or anticipated loss of conspecifics, including oneself) among humans shows increased bonding within one’s social network and derogation of outgroup conspecifics. Based on ethological observations reporting similar behavioral patterns and on the adaptive value of social networks, we hypothesize the existence of an evolved “conspecific loss compensation mechanism” (CLCM) that keeps track of and compensates for threats to the integrity of one’s social network. The CLCM parsimoniously explains a wide variety of empirical findings and allows the testing of novel predictions regarding human social cognition and behavior.