Evolutionary explanations of Aggression & Group Display Flashcards
What’s the ultimate aim of human behaviour?
To increase the likelihood of survival. To reproduce.
Why has jealousy evolved?
To aid reproduction chances. Jealousy often comes before aggressive behaviours.
By being jealous, it prevents partner from being unfaithful and allows genes to be passed on.
Why is jealousy useful/adaptive?
If males lose their female partner, they lose their mating partner. Jealousy prevents female from cheating so they can make sure that the offspring is theirs.
If females lose their male partner, they lose resources that would help the survival of herself and her offspring
Why has jealousy evolved in males?
To prevent cuckoldry
What is cuckoldry?
When a woman deceives her male partner into investing into offspring conceived with another man.
Negative thing for males because he is losing his resources and reproductive opportunity.
Why has jealousy evolved to prevent cuckoldry?
To prevent infidelity. Helps prevent males from investing resources for a child that is not his. Jealousy prevents the female from mating with another male.
Name the mate retention tactics
Verbal possession signs
Threats of intra-sexual violence
Punishment of infidelity
Example of verbal possession signs
‘he’s taken’
Example of a threat of intra-sexual violence
A man threatening to beat another man up
Example of a punishment of infidelity
‘I’ll leave you!’ ‘Don’t look at him again or we’re over’
Why have mate retention tactics evolved?
To help keep their partner to therefore pass on genes
Who is Camilleri?
Stated that males will be more likely to use sexual coercive tactics (such as partner rape) when the risk of cuckoldry is high.
Such sexual coercive tactics are the result of jealousy
Why is rape a sexual coercive tactic that is used?
If the male rapes the female, he can be more sure the offspring is his
Name the research studies into the evolutionary explanation of aggression
Buss et al
Shackelford et al
Buss and Dedden
Research of Buss et al
Set up scenaarios that were mutually exclusive (‘one or the other’)
Ppts asked what would distress them most, sexual infidelity or emotional infidelity
Showed - Males were most concerned with sexual infidelity (61% compared to women 13%)
Women more concerned with emotional infidelity (87% compared to males 39%)
Research of Shackelford et al
461 males and 560 women, not married to each other
STUDY 1 - Males completed the MRI (mate retention inventory) concerning tactics used in the previous 3 months against their partners
Asked how often they performed a range (26) acts of violence against their partners and how often their partners sustained injuries as a result of their violence
Found - 2 mate retention tactics were strongly associated with violence scores ‘intersexual negative inducement’ (e.g. shouting for looking at another man) AND ‘direct guarding’ (monopolising her time at a party)
STUDY 2 - results confirmed. Women asked which tactics their partner used and how violent they were towards them
Research of Buss and Dedden
Found that women tended to criticise the appearance and sexual promiscuity of other women. Reducing their potential rivals attractiveness to her male partner
Evaluation of evolutionary explanations of aggression (infidelity and jealousy)
Too simplistic
P.A. (counselling… reduce jealousy - reduce aggression)
Cannot explain agg in homosexual couples
Jealousy may not be useful in retaining a mate (jealousy may push the partner away… not make them stay within the relationship)
Dated (Buss et al’s research)
What does the term ‘adaptive’ mean?
Increasing chances of survival
Examples of group displays of aggression
Lynch mobbing
Violence at sports events (e.g. football matches)
What is xenophobia?
An irrational or unreasoned fear of things that are perceived to be foreign or strange
Name the explanations for group displays
Xenophobia
Power-threat hypothesis
Group displays of aggression improve the survival and reproductive chances of the group….
and therefore the individual within that group
Group aggression may lead to better access to…
territory, resources, food and mating partners
Xenophobia explanation
Desire to eliminate opposing groups presence, aggression and suspicion of out-group’s activities. Xenophonia encourages aggression and therefore dominance. By being within the dominant group (‘in-group’) and rejecting the ‘out-group’ they feel superior over the subordinate group.
The in-group attempts to show territorial dominance by creating a home environment that is hostile for the ‘out-group’
Xenophobia linked to sports events
Racist chants relating to the opposing team, racist slogans on banners etc. would scare and threaten making them stay away. Increases chances of survival and reproduction.
Research studies for Xenophobia
Podaliri and Bolestri
Shwarz and Barkey
Research of Podaliri and Bolestri
Assessed the behaviour of football match match crowds in Italy in terms of chants and aggressive behaviour.
Found - Aggressive chants stengthened cultural identity of different supporters so differences were emphasised. When associated with the stronger group (winning team) increased status and made people more attractive to potential partners
Research of Shwarz and Barkey
Suggested that home teams win more games due to the social support of home fans and the hostility directed towards the opposing team.
Evaluation of Xenophobia as an explanation
P.A. - reduce xenophobia at sporting clubs. German clubs played with a slogan on their shirts that translated to ‘My Friend is a Foreigner’
Supporting research
Is it genuine agg or more ritual agg at sports events (MARSH - harmless)
Second explanation of group displays of agg
The power-threat hypothesis (proposed by Blalock)
Blalock
Proposed the power-threat hypothesis
How many lynchings took place between 1882 and 1930?
2805 (nearly one a week)
Lynching linked to evolution
Remove competition - increases survival and reproduction
Working as a group to remove opposition
E.g. White people killing black
Evaluation of the power-threat hypothesis
Contradictory research in relation to lynch mobs - CLARK researched lynching in Sao Paulo of African-Brazilians - although lynchings took place, Afro-Brazilians posed no threat to natives
General eval of evolutionary explanation of group displays in humans
Too simp - Deindividuation
Group behaviour does not always lead to agg - Cassidy - Mela
Difficult to study accurately - Berk
