SOCIAL 6

Question 1

Aggression

Answer 1

Behavior done with the intention of physically, mentally, or socially hurting or killing another living thing does not wish to be harmed.

Question 2

Types of targets of aggression

Answer 2

1. Allospecific aggression: aggression towards members of other species.
2. Conspecific aggression: aggression towards members of one’s own species (e.g. war)

Question 3

Three types of conspecific aggression

Answer 3

Hostile aggression: aggressive behavior intended to physically harm another person.

Instrumental aggression: goal-directed aggressive behavior intended to primarily acquire an object, person, or social status.

Relational aggression: aggressive behavior intended to hurt another person’s social status or relationships.

Question 4

Why do we hurt each other?

Answer 4

It protects and or acquires you resources

Question 5

Assuming aggression protects and/or acquires resources, what should we expect:

Answer 5

Other Animals: conspecific aggression should be very common.

Biological predictors: that there are strong biological predictors of aggression (genes, hormonal triggers)

Minimal environmental impact: aggression does not vary much with environmental exposure.

Question 6

Three situations when conspecific aggression is common in social animals:

Answer 6

1. Dominance: Increase their social status and get access to females they can mate with.
2. Eliminating Competition: when new male become dominant, he will frequently kill the young children of the previously dominant male.
3. Protecting resources: group of animals will fight other groups to protect their territory and resources.

Question 7

Hostile and instrumental aggression is biologically, strongly related to the presence of _________

Answer 7

Testosterone

Question 8

Fraternity study

Answer 8

Fraternity members with higher levels of testosterone in their saliva had more campus reports of violence.

Question 9

Experimental injection

Answer 9

Castration –> testosterone drops –> levels of aggression drop

Question 10

The presence of testosterone _________ directly cause aggression, but instead likely increases _________ and _________

Answer 10

doesn’t
irritability
impulsivity

Question 11

The relationship between testosterone and aggression has led many to
hypothesize that men should therefore be
substantially more aggressive than women

Answer 11

­Hostile: men universally show show higher levels of hostile aggression, but
women’s hostile aggression is much more affected by fluctuations in T (e.g.,
through injections).

­Instrumental: men and women show near-identical rates of instrumental
aggression.
­
Relational: women tend to show higher levels of relational aggression, though
there is cultural variability in this finding.

Question 12

Why is the relationship between biology and aggression not clear cut?

Answer 12

Because there are also substantial effects of culture on aggression.

Question 13

Bobo doll experiement

Answer 13

An adult either hitting or playing with an inflatable “Bobo” doll.

Children seeing the aggression showed higher levels of aggression towards bobo, and invented new ways to hurt bobo.

Children who did not observe hitting subsequently played with bobo or ignored him

Question 14

Culture of honour

Answer 14

Many cultures around the world emphasize the importance of social status; these cultures have a social norm whereby any insult to one’s honor must be responded to with aggression.

Question 15

Cooperation

Answer 15

The behavior of two or more individuals who work together for mutual benefit

Question 16

Time scales of cooperative behavior

Answer 16

1. Immediate/ short-term: two or more agents work together on the same problem at the same time in order to increase the chance of success for everyone (e.g. collective hunting)
2. Delayed/ long-term: one agent cooperates without immediate benefit to themselves in order to increase the survival of the group or to get a benefit at a later time (social exchange).

Question 17

Examples of cooperation for immediate benefit for both parties not restricted to conspecific.

Answer 17

1. Cleaner fish: many fish will attach themselves to a big fish to clean parasites while the big fish offers protection.
2. Cooperative hunts: many species will hunt together for larger prey and then split the food

Question 18

Cooperation for delayed benefit is reserved for _________

Answer 18

Conspecifics

Question 19

Examples of cooperation with delayed benefit

Answer 19

Vampire bats: will feed other bats that are not genetically related to.

Question 20

What is the fundamental problem for long-term cooperative behavior?

Answer 20

Somebody might get the benefits now, but not return them in the future

Question 21

When is long-term cooperation viable?

Answer 21

When there are mechanisms that:

1. Encourage people to be cooperative at first
2. Have ways of identifying those who are exploiting the system.
3. Have clear means of punishing and excluding them from the long term cooperative behaviors.

Question 22

Reciprocity norm

Answer 22

The norm stating that if somebody does something good for us, we have the responsibility to return the favor.

DOOR IN THE FACE THECHNIQUE

Question 23

Tit-for-Tat strategy

Answer 23

In conspecifics in same group, people retaliate against the cheater until they correct their behavior.

Question 24

Reputation

Answer 24

Cheaters in long term-cooperative system are quickly identified as untrustworthy.

Question 25

Gossip

Answer 25

Adaptive behavior that allow us to communicate about cheaters in our community

Question 26

Prisoner’s dilemma

Answer 26

a famous example of a “cooperative” game/model that
helps model the principles of trust, reputation, and cheating detection.

Betray or stay silent