Evolutionary Explanations Of Aggression Flashcards
How do males use aggressive mate retention strategies to avoid cuckoldry?
Men face the threat of cuckoldry (having to raise offspring that are not their own) - it is a waste of his resources because it contributes to survival of a rival’s genes and leaves the ‘father’ with fewer resources to invest in his own future offspring. Men in our evolutionary past who could avoid cuckoldry were more reproductively successful - so psychological mechanisms have evolved to increase anti-cuckoldry behaviours in men (e.g. Sexual jealousy felt more strongly by men than women). This drives the often aggressive mate retention strategies men use to keep their partners and prevent them from ‘straying’ - these were adaptive in our evolutionary history.
What are the two major mate retention strategies involving aggression?
Wilson and Daly identified:
- Direct guarding: a man’s vigilance over a partner’s behaviour (e.g. Checking who they’ve been seeing).
- Negative inducements: (eg threats of consequences for infidelity - ‘I’ll kill myself if you leave me.’).
How are mate retention strategies linked to physical violence?
Wilson et al found women who reported mate retention strategies in partners where twice as likely to suffer physical violence at their hands - 73% of these women required medical attention and 53% said they feared for their lives. Men who used guarding (e.g. Monitoring partner’s movements) or negative inducements (e.g. Threats to kill) were more likely to use physical violence against their partners - these retention behaviours reliably predicted husbands’ use of aggression against their wives.
How may bullying be an adaptive form of aggression?
Bullying is a power imbalance in which a stronger individual uses aggression repeatedly against a weaker person. Researchers have traditionally viewed bullying as a maladaptive behaviour (e.g. Due to poor social skills or childhood abuse) - but evolutionary ancestors may have used it as an adaptive strategy to increase chances of survival by promoting their own health and creating reproduction opportunities.
What are the advantages of bullying in males?
In men, bullying suggests dominance, acquisition of resources, strength and also wards off potential rivals. Characteristics associated with bullying deliver the ideal combinations of access to more females and minimal threat from competing males - so aggressive bullying was naturally selected because these males would have reproductive success.
How is bullying advantageous in women?
Female bullying more often takes place within rather than outside a relationship, as a method of controlling a partner. Women use bullying behaviour to secure a partner’s fidelity, which means the partner continues to provide resources for future offspring - again such behaviour would be naturally selected because it enhanced the woman’s reproductive success.
Strength: research support for central evolutionary concepts.
Many research studies demonstrate that mate retention strategies are associated with sexual jealousy and aggression. Shackelford et al found that direct guarding and negative inducements are overwhelmingly used by males, against both females and other males. This suggests risk of infidelity, cuckoldry and aggression are linked and supports predictions from the explanation about the adaptive value of aggression.
Strength: the evolutionary explanation explains gender differences.
Males engage more often than females in aggressive acts, especially physical aggression (i.e. There are gender differences). It is argued that aggression in females risks the survival of their offspring so a more adaptive strategy is to use verbal aggression to retain a partner who provides resources. The fact that the evolutionary explanation can explain such gender differences in aggression (and predict them in research) increases the validity of this kind of approach.
Strength: real life applications.
Rigby reviewed several established anti-bullying interventions. Despite the availability of such interventions, bullying remains prevalent. Most interventions fail to recognise that bullies bully because they gain advantages - it would make no sense for them to voluntarily give up the power they have over others without some compensation. An evolutionary understanding of bullying as an adaptive behaviour can help us to devise effective anti-bullying interventions, to increase the costs of bullying and the rewards of prosocial alternatives.
Limitation: cultural differences in aggression.
The evolutionary explanation predicts aggression is present in all cultures because it is used everywhere to increase survival chances through greater reproductive success. The Kung San people discourage aggression and those who use it lose status and reputation. The fact that the Kung San people have such different experience of, and attitudes towards, aggression suggests that this behaviour is not universal, contrary to the evolutionary theory.
Limitation: methodological issues with the research evidence.
It is extremely difficult to test hypotheses about the evolution of behaviours to solve problems of adaptation in out past, so research is correlational. But even a very strong correlation does not allow us to conclude that evolutionary-related factors (e.g. Sexual jealousy) cause aggression. This makes it very difficult to establish precisely how valid an evolutionary explanation of aggression is.
