Evolutionary Explanations for Human Aggression
Evolutionary explanations for human aggression, AO1 and AO2.
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- Created by: Caitriona Doherty
- Created on: 12-04-14 10:20
AO1 - Cuckoldry and Sexual Jealousy
- Unlike women, men can never be entirely sure that they are the fathers of their children, as fertilisation is hidden from them inside the woman
- As a result, men are always at the risk of cuckoldry: the reproductive cost that might be inflicted on a man as a result of his partner's infidelity
- The consequence of cuckoldry is that the man might unwittingly invest his resources in offspring that is not his own
- The adaptive function of sexual jealousy would have been to deter a mate from sexual infidelity, thereby minimising the risk of cuckoldry
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AO1 - Mate Retention and Violence
- Buss: males have a number of strategies that have evolved specifically for the purpose of keeping a mate
Direct guarding
- By restricting their partner's sexual autonomy, our male ancestors would have been able to deter rivals from getting access to their mate
- A modern example of direct guarding is 'vigilance', i.e. coming home unexpectedly to see what a female partner is up to
- Wilson et al: women whose partner 'is jealous and doesn't want you talking to other men' were twice as likely to have experienced violence by them
- 72% required medical attention following an assault by their male partner
Negative inducements
- Men may also attempt to retain their partners by offering threats for any infidelity
- Those who are perceived by their partner to be threatening infidelity (e.g. by looking at another man) are more at risk of violence
- Dobash and Dobash: in the majority of cases of woman-beating, extreme jealousy on the part of the boyfriend or husband has been the cause
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AO1 - Uxorocide (wife-killing)
- Men can guard against their partner's infidelity either by conferring benefits or by inflicting costs, including violence
- Shackelford et al: men who do not possess resources that might be used to provide benefits are more prone to use violence, or the threat thereof
- Daly and Wilson: death of the partner from physical violence may be an unintended outcome of an evolutionary adaptation designed for control
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AO2 - Research Support
- SUPPORTS
- Buss and Shackelford: studied a series of men
- Men who suspected that their wives might be unfaithful over the next year exacted greater punishment for a known or suspected infidelity than men who did not anticipate future infidelities
- This finding is consistent with the claim that mate retention strategies are evoked only when a particular adaptive problem is faced
- In this case the belief that the wife's infidelity is likely
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AO2 - Practical Applications of Research
- SUPPORTS
- Particular tactics of mate retention used by males can be an early indicator of violence against the female partner
- These findings could potentially be used to alert friends and families to the danger signs; the specific acts that can lead to future violence in relationship
- At this point, help can be sought or offered before the violence ever happens
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AO2 - Uxorocide
- UNDERMINES
- Daly and Wilson's explanation of uxorocide was challenged by Shackelford et al, who analysed over 13,000 husband-to-wife homicides
- The younger women had a much greater risk of uxorocide regardless of the age of their partner
- The fact that men kill their wives when they are most reproductively valuable contradicts the evolutionary view that these women are 'prized property'
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AO2 - The Evolved Homicide Module Theory
- SUPPORTS
- Duntley and Buss: a partner's infidelity carries a double loss for a male, particularly when the female is still of reproductive age
- Another man gains a partner and increases his own fitness
- By killing his wife, he at least prevents a competitor from gaining in the reproductive stakes
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IDA - Gender Bias
- UNDERMINES
- Most studies of infidelity have focused solely on men's mate retention strategies and men's violence against women
- However, women also engage in mate retention tactics and sometimes behave violently towards their partners
- Women do initiate and carry out assaults on their partners as much as men do
- Archer: family conflict studies find approximately equal rates of assaults by women and men
- Women's mate retention tactics could also be linked to partner-directed violence
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IDA - Problems with Surveys
- UNDERMINES
- Answers may not be truthful because of the social desirability bias
- This takes the form of over-reporting desirable behaviour and under-reporting undesirable behaviour
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