Aggression & Warfare

Question 1

Different examples of Aggression acting as an adaptive solution

Answer 1

1. Co-opting resources
   -> Taking resources
2. Defend against attacks
3. Deterrence against aggression
   -> Crazy bastard hypothesis
4. Negotiating status and power hierarchies
5. Inflicting cost on intrasexual rivals
6. Deterring sexual infidelity

Question 2

Why are men more aggressive than women?

Answer 2

Revisit Sexual Selection Theory
-> Selection favors riskier strategies in sex with higher reproductive variances

Question 3

Are women not aggressive?

Answer 3

They are, but female aggression is less risky
1. Verbal aggression is preferred over physical aggression
2. Women place a higher value on their lives than men

Question 4

What is Young Male Syndrome?

Answer 4

Young men are most prone to engaging in risk-taking

Question 5

Why does Young Male Syndrome occur?

Answer 5

Young men constitute the demographic where selection is most intense

Question 6

What is the input in evolution psychological mechanism for Aggression?

Answer 6

Weak target with desirable resource

Question 7

What is the contextual input in evolution psychological mechanism for Aggression?

Answer 7

No costs for acts of aggression
1. Ability for the target to defend
2. Retaliation
3. Condemnation
4. Reputation as cooperator

Question 8

Different contextual triggers of Aggression

Answer 8

1. Men-on-men
2. Women-on-women
3. Men-on-women
4. Women-on-men

Question 9

Examples of men-on-men aggression trigger

Answer 9

1. Inability to access resources and mates
2. Defense of status, reputation, and honor
3. Sexual jealousy and intrasexual rivalry

Question 10

Examples of women-on-women aggression trigger

Answer 10

1. Sexual jealousy and intrasexual rivalry
2. Violation of social contract

Question 11

Examples of men-on-women aggression trigger

Answer 11

1. Sexual jealousy

Question 12

Examples of women-on-men aggression trigger

Answer 12

1. Defense and deterrence

Question 13

Necessary conditions for warfare

Answer 13

1. Long term gain of reproductive resources outweigh the reproductive costs of going into warfare
2. Coalition members must believe their group will be victorious
3. The risk that each member takes needs to be translated into their share of benefits
4. Men who go into battle need to be ignorant regarding who will live

Question 14

What are the well-supported predictions of war?

Answer 14

1. Men will have evolved psychological mechanisms for coalitional warfare
2. Sexual access to women will be the primary benefit men gain from joining male coalition
3. Men should have evolved psychological mechanisms that function to detect and prefer men who are willing to contribute to the coalition’s success

Question 15

What are the other testable subjects of war?

Answer 15

1. Men should panic when death is imminent
2. Men should be more likely to go to war when their odds of success appear high
3. Men should have evolved psychological mechanisms to detect and punish defectors to the coalition