Silicone dolls can scare fishermen to tears. Why are humans so afraid of the corpses of the same kind? Not only are animals not afraid, they even cannibalize themselves?

In 2020, a fisherman surnamed Li hooked up a "corpse" in the river. The fisherman screamed in fright. When calling the police, the fisherman actually asked his companions where the 110 number was. How many! When the police arrived, they found that the "body" was made of silicone. I don't know which young man threw the "daughter-in-law" he bought into the river, and it was a false alarm.

A silicone doll can scare people to the point of being helpless. This shows how oppressive similar corpses are to people. Why does this happen? Is fear of the corpses of our own species unique to humans? Where did this feeling come from?

The first thing we need to know is that human beings are innately afraid of corpses of the same kind. This instinct does not need to be learned. A three-year-old child will also feel afraid when facing a dead corpse. Therefore, if we want to find the answer, we must understand where this instinct comes from. Instinctive things must be related to genes, and genes are the result of hundreds of millions of years of evolution.

More than 2 million years ago, humans were still In the great ape stage, when we were not yet the absolute rulers of the earth, many large carnivores fed on our ancestors, including cats such as saber-toothed tigers, dire lions, giant hyenas, short-faced bears in the Ursidae family, and canids. There are dire wolves.

At that time, humans had just stepped down from the trees and could not walk upright with their legs. When facing these predators, they could not fight or run away, so they could only take precautions in advance. When Australopithecus see the corpses of the same kind on the ground, they will become afraid, because it means that there are large carnivores nearby. The timid Australopithecus will choose to run away, while the more courageous Australopithecus will often be killed. Eaten by nearby predators.

The apes that were eaten had no descendants. Those who survived were afraid of the corpses of the same kind. After hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, this fear was engraved into DNA and became human instinct. .

This fear does not come from the corpses of the same kind themselves, but from the predators that cause the death of the same kind. However, this does not mean that the corpses of the same kind are not dangerous in themselves.

This brings up the second reason why humans fear corpses of the same kind.

When humans slowly learned to walk upright and had simple language, they began to dominate the African continent. The human beings were called Homo erectus. Homo erectus would use simple tools, wooden sticks, beaten stone tools, and would also keep natural fire sources to drive away beasts. But at this time, there was not only one human race on the earth, just like Like horses and donkeys, different species of Homo erectus are reproductively isolated and cannot produce offspring.

When food is scarce, Homo erectus will also hunt other types of humans and use them as food, sometimes even the same species. Cannibalism! But after eating other types of people, it is easy to get sick, such as dementia, tremors, madness, etc. So nature once again gave humans a genetic enhancement. People who eat people will not die well, dead bodies Poisonous.

In fact, this kind of poison comes from prions, which are protein viruses. Most of these viruses are caused by cannibalism of the same species or species with similar genes. This is just like poisonous snakes. You If you see a venomous snake on the ground, although it cannot bite you, you know that it will be fatal, and you will feel afraid and stay away from it.

In addition to prions, humans can also be infected by other viruses or bacteria. Causes death, and dead bodies are still contagious. Normal humans will also be infected after contact, seriously leading to the demise of the entire tribe. Therefore, humans later learned to bury graves. After their companions died, they had to find a place to bury their bodies. , avoid contact with living people.

Therefore, humans are afraid of the dead bodies of their companions, and viruses and bacteria contribute to this. This can be seen not only in humans, but also in social, highly intelligent mammals. This kind of emotion. When a wolf is about to die, he will leave the pack alone and find a wilderness to die alone. Other wolves will stay away if they smell the corpses of their companions.

All humans on the earth now belong to Homo sapiens. The direct ancestor of Homo sapiens is a branch of Homo erectus, so Homo sapiens inherited Homo erectus. Genes of fear of corpses of the same kind. Not only that, late Homo sapiens also evolved rich language and imagination, and their understanding of death is gradually deepening. Ghosts, ghosts, gods, monsters, and hell do not exist in nature.Things were created under the rich imagination of Homo sapiens.

After entering the slave society, the rulers used these imaginary things to intimidate the people at the bottom. In addition, because of our rich imagination, when we see the corpses of the same kind, we will unconsciously think of the tragic situation of the corpse before death, and at the same time, we will involuntarily put this tragic situation into our own bodies. This is the same as ours. It’s exactly the same as feeling scared when watching a horror movie. Because Homo sapiens has richer emotions and a very strong ability to empathize, he can imagine the pain of the deceased during his lifetime, so he will unconsciously feel fear.

Through the above three points, we can know that people’s fear of corpses of the same kind originated from unknown dangers, mainly from predators and infectious viruses and bacteria. This is caused by the laws of nature. On this basis, we humans use our imagination and empathy to deepen this fear. Therefore, even if it is not a real corpse, but just a silicone doll or a plastic skeleton, it will still arouse people's fear. In the final analysis, this fear is a protective mechanism, and being timid is not entirely a shortcoming.