Roots of Aggression

1
Roots of Aggression

• Two Theories

2
Two Views of Aggressions Source

• Biological source--evolutionary/adaptive on a
  continuum with our animal ancestry
• Psychological source--rooted in humanity and
  something peculiar or unique to us!

3
Ethologists Theory of Human Aggression!

• Predation vs. Aggression
• Wynne-Edwards stable populations
• --animals dont all starve equally
• --competitions displays (red grouse
• fight at dawn for 2 hrs. then feed togthr.
• --swarming
• --Tribolium (Chapman) 1 to 32 breeding pairs,
• after 6 months, Get 44 beetles/gram flour

4
Role of Aggression

• Fitness selection (mature breeders)
• Cost of aggression (hurt/killed)
• Limitations on cost
• --Dominance hierarchies (hens/monkeys) or
  individual territories (bower birds)
• --Mechanisms that minimize damage
• -- threat display
• -- ritualized combat

5
Ritualized Combat

• Http//www.cals.arizona.edu/bta/
  whatsnew/snakedance.html

6
Implications for Humans

• Eibl-Eibesfeldt dangerous vs. non-dangerous
  animals implications
• Humans quickly switched categories via cultural
  invention, didnt develop the safeguards
• Thus an ethological explanation of human behavior!

7
Humanistic Theory Koestler

• Focus on War, not bar fights
• Its our human qualities and not our animal
  nature that makes us dangerous
• Pre-history bonding of hunting groups-
  (Love of the in-group)
• Human sacrifice- no inhibition against killing
  con-specifics
• Brain hierarchy (McClains tripartite brain)
• (Marcus kluge Evolution doesnt optimize)
• Symbols their unique power to influence humans

8
Mobbing

• Mobbing

9
Human Analogues

• Spatial behavior Hall (intimate 0-1.5, personal
  1.5-4, social 4-12, public 12)
• Invasion of space (library tables)
• Defensive architecture (Newman)
• Middlemeist et al. study of spacing
• Emotions (universality, facial muscles, etc.)
  --defensive smile

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Summary

• Humans oriented toward what others do and can
  become dangerous as a result
• Issues
• Conformity
• Obedience
• Self Perception
• Foot in the door
• Dehumanization