Chapter 10 Aggression and Warfare

1. Chapter 10Aggression and Warfare Lecia E. Wright Creighton University November 07 and 09, 2006

2. Overview • Today: Aggression • Thursday: Warfare We will have an open discussion for the majority of class on Thursday, so please come prepared to talk and share your thoughts on warfare as they relate to EP I will be pointing out things to keep in mind

3. Aggression • Why are people aggressive? Who is aggressive? Explanations? • Humans and chimpanzees are unique in that they are the only two species that show male-initiated, territorial aggression

4. Aggression as a Solution to Adaptive Problems • Coopt the Resources of Other: • humans have a lot of things that other humans might desire and aggressive behavior is one way of gaining access to those things • Can happen at the group or the individual level • Can be seen in at an early age through adulthood • Even the threat of aggression can be enough to get a resource desired

5. Aggression • Warfare has frequently been used in order to coopt resources from others (something we shall discuss later) • Question for Thursday? Is this idea applicable to today's warfare?

6. Aggression • Defend against attack: • Presence or threat of aggression is problematic for potential victims • In response, people become aggressive themselves to ward off attack • Are there any problems with this?

7. Aggression • Inflict Costs on Intrasexual Rivals: • Same sex individuals are in competition for the same resources (women especially) • Cost to the rival is a benefit to the perp • Aggression to disable the rival can take various forms

8. Aggression • Negotiate Status and Power Hierarchies: • Similar to ability to defend against attack • Aggression functions to increase one’s status or power within his or her social hierarchy • Men seen as the gallant warrior: do you think it is sexy? Jordon, why do you think women think its sexy? • Context specific (Sex and the City clip)

9. Aggression • Deter Rivals from Future Aggression: • As other evolutionary hypothesis have already suggested, if you are tough, you will probably get left alone

10. Aggression • Deter Long-Term Mates from Sexual Infidelity: • Male sexual jealousy • Can women be effective at this? (Lorriane Bobbit)

11. Aggression • The Context-Specificity of Aggression: • For the most part, people don’t get violent and aggressive at any old place • Males’ sexual jealousy and danger of violence is higher when the man feels threat that woman could cheat • Costs: Beth and Tina from MTV. • Threat of retaliation • Reputation consequences

12. Aggression • Food for thought: • The book says that if the relevant contexts that induce aggression are not encountered, then someone might not ever be aggressive (it would remain dormant). • Stan Tribble • What do you think?

13. Why are Men More Violently Aggressive than Women? • Theory of parental investment and sexual selection • Males can only have access to females when females allow access • Dimorphism leads to more reproductive variance between the sexes • Some males get more than their “fair share” and some get left out completely • This leads to competition and aggression

14. Why are Men More Violently Aggressive than Women? • Although unconscious, men want to increase their reproductive success • “Males are more often the perpetrators of violence because they are the products of a long history of mild but sustained effective polygyny characterized by risky strategies of intrasexual competition for access to the high investing sex” (Buss, 2004, p.287) • Men victims more

15. Empirical Evidence for Distinct Adaptive Patterns of Aggression • Janet Hyde’s (1986) meta-analysis • Daly and Wilson (1988) Same sex homicides. Are women getting more violent? (Thelma and Louise) • Same-Sex Bullying in Schools (Ahmad & Smith, 1994 as cited in Buss, 2004). Differences in bullying (Mean Girls 3)

16. Why are Men More Violently Aggressive than Women? • The Young Male Syndrome: • Engage in risky behavior at peak of physical prowess, disease lowest, etc • Dangerous but also builds reputation • Other possible explanations for young males being “best predictors of violent aggression”?

17. Contexts Triggering Men’s Aggression against Men • Marital and Employment Status (Sociological vs Evolutionary?) • Status and Reputation: why can’t we back down? • Mate guarding • Warfare-coalitions of males aggressing other males. Never women (Uncle Erick)

18. Contexts Triggering Women’s Aggression Against Women • Less frequent, less violent, and less showy • Definitions: strictest sense, they are aggressive. • Content is quite different, however • Mean Girls 4 • Can they be aggressive for any other reason?

19. Contexts Triggering Men’s Aggression against Women • Much of non-sexual aggression is directed at spouses, mates, or girlfriends, and sexual jealousy seems to be cause (how non-sexual is this?) • Young women killed more (reproductive value) • What about defenseless/powerless men?

20. Contexts Triggering Women’s Aggression against Men • Domestic violence men and women have similar rates • Woman defending herself (Enough) • Book does not offer anything more… can women be aggressive towards men for other reasons? • What about nice guys? • What about rage-aholics? (Angry Man)

21. Concluding Remarks • Aggression is evident in both males and females, in various forms and emerges in various contexts • For Thursday, we will apply these thoughts to our discussion of warfare • Please come prepared to talk away!

22. Warfare • Today we will start by going over some introductory information on warfare • Quick recap of Tuesday • Lets begin  • (Video Clip of Iraq War)

23. Warfare • The idea mentioned Tuesday- war to coopt resources. What do you think?

24. Warfare • It’s a man thing (Facebook profile) • EP benefit? More copulations • Yanmamo Warfare (Box 10.1) made me think about men and meat

25. The Evolutionary Psychology of War • Tooby and Cosmides (1988) addressed the frequently overlooked aspect of cooperation • War is costly, so what gets men to do it (and now women) • 1. Avg long term resources must be large enough to outweigh the reproductive costs of engaging in warfare over evolutionary time (copulations) • So if we didn’t have sex, or babies, would we still have war?

26. The Evolutionary Psychology of War • 2. Members of coalitions must believe that their group will emerge victorious • So why do those who know they are going to lose still participate? (The Last Samurai) • 3. The risks each member takes must translate into benefits • Fanfare and return of soldiers

27. The Evolutionary Psychology of War • 4. Men who go into battle must be ignorant of who will live or die • Stress, anxiety, PTSD (CNN Sniper Video)

28. Warfare • Men engage in war • Men assess their fighting ability • Men have adaptations designed for war (upper body strength, navigational abilities, coalitions with men to diminish the risk of women “interfering”? • Sexual access

29. Warfare • Women in war • Is it all sex? • Mind boggling • Optional discussion: evolved psych mechanism to kill?

30. Conclusion • Aggression and warfare go hand in hand • The books suggests its all about sex and mating, which naturally coincides with EP • Any other remarks/comments? • Thank you!

31. References • All videos can be found through Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOWRyi-bRIc (Iraq war) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miuy9YXNqPM (The Last Samurai) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zzfbPdPnEg (CNN Sniper Video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAuMVmnU9cI (Saving Private Ryan) You can find the other videos (Thelma and Louise, Mean Girls, Beth and Tina from the Real World/Road Rules, and Enough) by going to Youtube and searching for them The site below is for Randy Schutt and gives some Non-Violent Alternatives to War: http://www.vernalproject.org/Papers2/NonviolentAlternatives.html The site below is from the National Center for PTSD: http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ Please let me know if you would like any other info!!