Evolutionary Aspects of Aggression (original) (raw)

Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Aggression : Introduction to the Special Issue

Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.), 2012

The papers in this volume present varying approaches to human aggression, each from an evolutionary perspective. The evolutionary studies of aggression collected here all pursue aspects of patterns of response to environmental circumstances and consider explicitly how those circumstances shape the costs and benefits of behaving aggressively. All the authors understand various aspects of aggression as evolved adaptations but none believe that this implies we are doomed to continued violence, but rather that variation in aggression has evolutionary roots. These papers reveal several similarities between human and nonhuman aggression, including our response to physical strength as an indicator of fighting ability, testosterone response to competition, a sensitivity to paternity, and baseline features of intergroup aggression in foragers and chimps. There is also one paper tackling the phylogeny of these traits. The many differences between human and nonhuman aggression are also pursued...

Male aggression as a reproductive strategy

socialethology.com, 2014

Origins of aggression can be better understood through the lens of sexual benefits that it provides. Combative behavior finds its justification in the need for males to protect their territory and resources, and to conquer the female and to reproduce – these are the adaptive and evolutionary significances of aggression. Namely because of competition for reproductive success there are a strongly asymmetric behavior between males and females in many animal species and this asymmetry in heavily is true for humans.

Female Aggression and Evolutionary Theory

2006

Evolutionists have long argued that more aggressive and more physically fit males that could fight off competition and control sexual access to their female mate(s) were more successful at passing on their genes. As a result male aggression towards other males and even towards females has been argued as being an evolved tactic to gain access to mates and to ensure paternity of offspring. Males are thought to engage primarily in intrasexual competition for mates while females engage in epigamic display, demonstrating characteristics thought to be desirable to the opposite sex, to attract mates (Campbell, 1995). This kind of theorizing portrays males' evolution as active whereas females' evolution is passive. Males evolve through competition Page 1 of 8 Female Aggression and Evolutionary Theory

Human aggression in evolutionary psychological perspective

Clinical Psychology Review, 1997

This article proposes an evolutionary psychological account of human aggression. The psychological mechanisms underlying aggression are hypothesized to he context-sensitive solutions to particular adaptive problems of social living. Seven adaptive problems are prqbosed for which aggression might have evolved as a solution -co-opting the resources of others, defending against attack, inflicting costs on same-sex rivals, negotiating status and power hierarchies, deterring rivals from future aggression, deterring mates from sexual infidelity, and reducing resources expended on genetically unrelated children. We outline several of the con texts in which humans confront these adaptive problems and the evolutionary logic of why men are cross-culturally more violently aggressive than women in particular contexts. The article con eludes with a limited review of the empirical evidence surrounding each of the seven hypothesized functions of aggression and discusses the status and limitations of the current evolutionary psychological account. 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd ANCIENT HOMINID skeletal remains have been discovered that contain cranial and rib fractures that appear inexplicable except by the force of clubs and weapons that stab (Trinkaus & Zimmerman, 1982). Fragments from the weapons are occasionally found lodged in skeletal rib cages. As paleontological detective work has become increasingly sophisticated, evidence of violence among our ancestors has mush-

When violence pays: A cost-benefit analysis of aggressive behavior in animals and humans

An optimization analysis of human behavior from a comparative perspective can improve our understanding of the adaptiveness of human nature. Intra-specific competition for resources provides the main selective pressure for the evolution of violent aggression toward conspecifics, and variation in the fitness benefits and costs of aggression can account for inter-specific and inter-individual differences in aggressiveness. When aggression reflects competition for resources, its benefits vary in relation to the characteristics of the resources (their intrinsic value, abundance, spatial distribution, and controllability) while its costs vary in relation to the characteristics of organisms and how they fight (which, in turn, affects the extent to which aggression entails risk of physical injury or death, energetic depletion, exposure to predation, psychological and physiological stress, or damage to social relationships). Humans are a highly aggressive species in comparison to other animals, probably as a result of an unusually high benefit-to-cost ratio for intra-specific aggression. This conclusion is supported by frequent and widespread occurrence of male-male coalitionary killing and by male-female sexual coercion. Sex differences in violent aggression in humans and other species probably evolved by sexual selection and reflect different optimal competitive strategies for males and females.

Aggression Among Men: An Integrated Evolutionary Explanation

Aggression and Violent Behavior

This pa­per de­vel­ops an in­te­grated the­o­ret­i­cal ex­pla­na­tion of ag­gres­sion among men, show­ing that much of that ag­gres­sion is an­chored in nat­u­rally-se­lected psy­cho­log­i­cal adap­ta­tions—and, in the case of honor, im­por­tantly tied to cul­tural trans­mis­sion—de­signed to solve the re­cur­rent evo­lu­tion­ary prob­lems of sta­tus and honor. Both of these prob­lems are—or at least were—very cru­cial to the re­pro­duc­tive suc­cess of men. Main­tain­ing and cul­ti­vat­ing honor, en­gag­ing in theft, mat­ing com­pe­ti­tion, war, and gangs are the main phe­nom­ena thereby ex­plained in evo­lu­tion­ary terms. Draw­ing on the­o­ret­i­cal and con­cep­tual re­sources from the evo­lu­tion­ary sci­ences at large, and in par­tic­u­lar evo­lu­tion­ary psy­chol­ogy, the ex­pla­na­tion de­vel­oped here also and im­por­tantly pulls to­gether the psy­cho­log­i­cal, de­vel­op­men­tal, cul­tural, and eco­log­i­cal di­men­sions of the phe­nom­ena at is­sue. Do­ing so al­lows the model to sketch the ways in which the psy­cho­log­i­cal adap­ta­tions un­der­ly­ing ag­gres­sion are sen­si­tive to both ex­ter­nal and in­di­vid­ual con­tin­gen­cies and thereby open-ended and flex­i­ble. The evo­lu­tion­ary model de­vel­oped here draws an ad­di­tional strength from its abil­ity to grap­ple with in­di­vid­ual dif­fer­ences and evo­lu­tion­ar­ily-novel en­vi­ron­ments. Fi­nally, the in­te­grated ex­pla­na­tion is also syn­the­sized with the evo­lu­tion­ary ge­net­ics and her­i­tabil­ity of ag­gres­sion.

Why can't we all just get along? Evolutionary perspectives on violence, homicide, and war

2012

We review and discuss the evolutionary psychological literature on violence, homicide, and war in humans and non-humans, and in doing so argue that an evolutionary perspective can substantially enhance our understanding of these behaviors. We provide a brief primer on evolutionary psychology, describing the basic tenets of the field. The theories of sexual selection and parental investment are explained and subsequently used to highlight the evolutionary logic underlying the use of violence by humans and other animals. Our examination of violent behavior begins with a focus on non-human animals, reviewing the different contexts in which violence occurs and discussing how an evolutionary perspective can explain why it occurs in these contexts. We then examine violence in humans and illustrate the similarities and differences between human and non-human violence. Finally, we summarize what an evolutionary perspective can offer in terms of understanding violence, homicide, and war, and...

Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War

The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War, 2012

We review and discuss the evolutionary psychological literature on violence, homicide, and war in humans and nonhumans, and in doing so we argue that an evolutionary perspective can substantially enhance our understanding of these behaviors. We provide a brief primer on evolutionary psychology, describing basic tenets of the field. The theories of sexual selection and parental investment are explained and subsequently used to highlight the evolutionary logic underlying the use of violence by humans and other animals. Our ...

What Concerns Men? Women or Other Men?: A Critical Appraisal of the Evolutionary Theory of Sex Differences in Aggression

Psychology, Evolution & Gender, 2001

This paper critically evaluates the evolutionary proposition that men's greater aggressiveness is the result of male intra-sexual competition. For this purpose we review and discuss experimental psychological and survey studies, as well as sociological and cultural anthropological work on gender differences in anger and aggression. The reviewed studies do not support the idea that men's concern for women, re ected in the salience of intra-sexual competition, is the major cause for male's supremacy in violence. On the contrary, we argue that the fear of losing status and respect in the eyes of fellow men is the major concern that evokes male anger and aggression. The implications of our argument for the evolutionary theory are discussed.