Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T14:11:20.413Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The evolution of war: theory and controversy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2015

Anthony C. Lopez
Anthony C. Lopez*
Affiliation:
School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs, Washington State University, Vancouver, Washington, USA
*
E-mail: anthony.c.lopez@wsu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The use of evolutionary theory for explaining human warfare is an expanding area of inquiry, but it remains obstructed by two important hurdles. One is that there is ambiguity about how to build an evolutionary theory of human warfare. The second is that there is ambiguity about how to interpret existing evidence relating to the evolution of warfare. This paper addresses these problems, first by outlining an evolutionary theory of human warfare, and second by investigating the veracity of four common claims made against the use of evolutionary theory for explaining warfare. These claims are: (1) ancestral warfare was not frequent or intense enough to have selected for psychological adaptations in humans for warfare; (2) the existence of peaceful societies falsifies the claim that humans possess adaptations for fighting; (3) if psychological adaptations for warfare exist, then war is an inevitable and universal component of the human condition; (4) modern warfare and international politics is so qualitatively different from ancestral politics that any adaptations for the latter are inoperative or irrelevant today. By outlining an evolutionary theory of war and clarifying key misunderstandings regarding this approach, international relations scholars are better positioned to understand, engage, and contribute to emerging scholarship on human warfare across the social and evolutionary sciences.

Keywords

warviolenceevolutionpsychology
Type
Original Papers
Information
International Theory , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 97 - 139
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, Richard. 2015. “Osama Bin Laden is Dead – Reaction.” The Guardian. Accessed May 1. http://www.theguardian.com/world/richard-adams-blog/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-dead-live.Google Scholar
Adler, Emanuel. 1997. “Seizing the Middle Ground: Constructivism in World Politics.” European Journal of International Relations 3(3):319–363.Google Scholar
Aktipis, C. Athena. 2011. “Is Cooperation Viable in Mobile Organisms? Simple Walk Away Rule Favors the Evolution of Cooperation in Groups.” Evolution and Human Behavior 32(4):263–276. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2011.01.002.Google Scholar
Alexander, Marcus, and Christia, Fotini. 2011. “Context Modularity of Human Altruism.” Science 334(6061):1392–1394.Google Scholar
Alford, John R., Funk, Carolyn L., and Hibbing, John R.. 2005. “Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted?” American Political Science Review 99(2):153–167. doi:10.1017/S0003055405051579.Google Scholar
Alford, John R., and Hibbing, John R.. 2004. “The Origin of Politics: An Evolutionary Theory of Political Behavior.” Perspectives on Politics 2(4):707–723.Google Scholar
Archer, John. 1988. The Behavioural Biology of Aggression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0906/87021792-d.html.Google Scholar
Archer, J. 2006. “Testosterone and Human Aggression: An Evaluation of the Challenge Hypothesis.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 30(3):319–345.Google Scholar
Atran, Scott, and Ginges, Jeremy. 2012. “Religious and Sacred Imperatives in Human Conflict.” Science 336(6083):855–857.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Axelrod, Robert M. 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York, NY: Basic Books. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0831/83045255-d.html.Google Scholar
Axelrod, Robert, and Hamilton, William D.. 1981. “The Evolution of Cooperation.” Science 211(4489):1390–1396.Google Scholar
Barany, Zoltan. 2008. “Superpresidentialism and the Military: The Russian Variant.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 38(1):14–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barash, David P., and Lipton, Judith E.. 2011. Payback: Why We Retaliate, Redirect Aggression, and Take Revenge. Oxford and New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Barkow, Jerome H., Cosmides, Leda, and Tooby, John. 1992. The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0636/91025307-d.html.Google Scholar
Bell, Duncan. 2006. “Beware of False Prophets: Biology, Human Nature, and the Future of International Relations Theory.” International Affairs 82(3):495–504.Google Scholar
Boehm, Christopher. 2011. “Retaliatory Violence in Human Prehistory.” British Journal of Criminology 51(3):518–534.Google Scholar
Boehm, Christopher. 2012a. Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Boehm, Christopher. 2012b. “Ancestral Hierarchy and Conflict.” Science 336(6083):844–847.Google Scholar
Bowles, Samuel. 2009. “Did Warfare Among Ancestral Hunter-Gatherers Affect the Evolution of Human Social Behaviors?” Science 324(5932):1293–1298.Google Scholar
Boyd, Robert, and Richerson, Peter J.. 2009. “Culture and the Evolution of Human Cooperation.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 364(1533):3281–3288.Google Scholar
Boyer, Pascal. 2002. Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Boyer, Pascal, and Petersen, Michael B.. 2011. “The Naturalness of (Many) Social Institutions: Evolved Cognition as Their Foundation.” Journal of Institutional Economics 8(1):1–25, FirstView.Google Scholar
Brown, Donald. 1991. Human Universals. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Burnette, Jeni L., McCullough, Michael E., Van Tongeren, Daryl R., and Davis, Don E.. 2012. “Forgiveness Results from Integrating Information About Relationship Value and Exploitation Risk.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 38(3):345–356.Google Scholar
Burton-Chellew, Maxwell N., Ross-Gillespie, Adin, and West, Stuart A.. 2010. “Cooperation in Humans: Competition Between Groups and Proximate Emotions.” Evolution and Human Behavior 31(2):104–108.Google Scholar
Buss, David M. 2005. The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0619/2004062476-b.html.Google Scholar
Buss, David M., and Greiling, Heidi. 1999. “Adaptive Individual Differences.” Journal of Personality 67(2):209–243.Google Scholar
Buss, DavidM., and Shackelford, Todd. 1997. “Human Aggression in Evolutionary Psychological Perspective.” Clinical Psychology Review 17:605–619.Google Scholar
Chang, Lei, Lu, Hui Jing, Li, Hongli, and Li, Tong. 2011. “The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships: The Mating–Warring Association in Men.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 37(7):976–984. doi:10.1177/0146167211402216.Google Scholar
Chiappe, Dan, and MacDonald, Kevin. 2005. “The Evolution of Domain-General Mechanisms in Intelligence and Learning.” Journal of General Psychology 132(1):5–40.Google Scholar
Choi, J. K., and Bowles, S.. 2007. “The Coevolution of Parochial Altruism and War.” Science 318(5850):636–640.Google Scholar
Cikara, Mina, Botvinick, Matthew M., and Fiske, Susan T.. 2011. “Us Versus Them: Social Identity Shapes Neural Responses to Intergroup Competition and Harm.” Psychological Science 22(3):306–313. doi:10.1177/0956797610397667.Google Scholar
Confer, Jaime C., Easton, Judith A., Fleischman, Diana S., Goetz, Cari D., Lewis, David M. G., Perilloux, Carin, and Buss, David M.. 2010. “Evolutionary Psychology: Controversies, Questions, Prospects, and Limitations.” American Psychologist 65(2):110–126.Google Scholar
Cosmides, Leda, and Tooby, John. 1987. “From Evolution to Behavior: Evolutionary Psychology as the Missing Link.” In The Latest on the Best: Essays on Evolution and Optimality, edited by John Dupre, 276–306. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cosmides, Ledaand Tooby, John . 1994. Origins of Domain Specificity: The Evolution of Functional Organization.” In Mapping the Mind: Domain Specificity in Cognition and Culture, edited by Lawrence A. Hirschfeld and Susan A. Gelman, 85–116. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cosmides, Ledaand Tooby, John . 2005. “Neurocognitive Adaptations Designed for Social Exchange.” In The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, edited by David M. Buss, 584–627. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Crisp, Richard J., and Meleady, Rose. 2012. “Adapting to a Multicultural Future.” Science 336(6083):853–855.Google Scholar
Curley, Tyler M. 2009. “Social Identity Theory and EU Expansion.” International Studies Quarterly 53(3):649–668.Google Scholar
Daly, Martin, and Wilson, Margo. 1983. Sex, Evolution, and Behavior. Boston, MA: Willard Grant Press.Google Scholar
Daly, Martinand Wilson, Margo . 1988. Homicide. New York, NY: A. de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Dawkins, Richard. 1980. “Good Strategy or Evolutionarily Stable Strategy?.” In Sociobiology: Beyond Nature/Nurture?, edited by George W. Barlow and James Silverberg, 331–367. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Delton, Andrew W., Krasnow, Max M., Cosmides, Leda, and Tooby, John. 2011. “Evolution of Direct Reciprocity Under Uncertainty can Explain Human Generosity in One-Shot Encounters.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108:13335–13340.Google Scholar
De Quervain, Dominique J. F., Fischbacher, Urs, Treyer, Valerie, Schellhammer, Melanie, Schnyder, Ulrich, Buck, Alfred, and Fehr, Ernst. 2004. “The Neural Basis of Altruistic Punishment.” Science, New Series 305(5688):1254–1258.Google Scholar
De Waal, Frans. 2012. “The Antiquity of Empathy.” Science 336(6083):874–876.Google Scholar
Dugatkin, Lee A. 1997. Cooperation Among Animals: An Evolutionary Perspective. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0637/96018864-d.html.Google Scholar
Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Irenäus. 1979. The Biology of Peace and War: Men, Animals, and Aggression. New York, NY: Viking Press.Google Scholar
Ember, C. R. 1978. “Myths About Hunter-Gatherers.” Ethnology 17(4):439–448.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D. 1995. “Rationalist Explanations for War.” International Organization 49(3):379–414.Google Scholar
Fehr, Ernst, and Schmidt, Klaus M.. 1999. “A Theory of Fairness, Competition, and Cooperation.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 114(3):817–868.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Brian R. 1997. “Violence and War in Prehistory.” In Troubled Times: Violence and Warfare in the Past, edited by DavidW. Frayer and Debra L. Martin, 321–356. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach Publishers.Google Scholar
Flinn, Mark V., Ponzi, Davide, and Muehlenbein, Michael P.. 2012. “Hormonal Mechanisms for Regulation of Aggression in Human Coalitions.” Human Nature 23(1):68–88. doi:10.1007/s12110-012-9135-y.Google Scholar
Forgas, Joseph P., Haselton, Martie, and Hippel, William von. 2007. Evolution and the Social Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and Social Cognition. New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Frank, Robert H. 1988. Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions. New York, NY: Norton.Google Scholar
Fry, Douglas P. 2007. Beyond War: The Human Potential for Peace, 1st ed. USA: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gat, Azar. 2000. “The Human Motivational Complex: Evolutionary Theory and the Causes of Hunter-Gatherer Fighting, Part II. Proximate, Subordinate, and Derivative Causes.” Anthropological Quarterly 73(2):74–88.Google Scholar
Gat, Azar. 2006. War in Human Civlization. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0614/2006017223.html.Google Scholar
Gat, Azar. 2009. “So Why Do People Fight? Evolutionary Theory and the Causes of War.” European Journal of International Relations 15(4):571–599.Google Scholar
Gazzaniga, Michael S. 2009. The Cognitive Neurosciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ginges, Jeremy, and Atran, Scott. 2011. “War as a Moral Imperative (Not Just Practical Politics by Other Means).” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 278(1720):2930–2938.Google Scholar
Glowacki, Luke, and Wrangham, Richard W.. 2013. “The Role of Rewards in Motivating Participation in Simple Warfare.” Human Nature 24(4):444–460.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gneezy, Ayelet, and Fessler, Daniel M. T.. 2011. “Conflict, Sticks and Carrots: War Increases Prosocial Punishments and Rewards.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279(1727):219–232. doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.0805.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Godfrey-Smith, Peter, and Wilkins, Jon F.. 2008. “Adaptationism.” In A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology, Chapter 11, edited by Sahotra Sarkar and Anya Plutynski. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Adam. 2010. “Evolution and Anarchism in International Relations: The Challenge of Kropotkin’s Biological Ontology.” Millennium – Journal of International Studies 39(2):417–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottschall, Jonathan. 2012. The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Google Scholar
Gould, Stephen J., and Lewontin, Richard C.. 1979. “The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences 205(1161):581–598.Google Scholar
Hamilton, WilliamD. 1964a. “Genetical Evolution of Social Behaviour 2.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 7(1):17–52.Google Scholar
Hamilton, WilliamD. 1964b. “Genetical Evolution of Social Behaviour I.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 7(1):1–16.Google Scholar
Harkavy, Robert E. 2000. “Defeat, National Humiliation, and the Revenge Motif in International Politics.” International Politics 37(3):345–368.Google Scholar
Haselhuhn, Michael P., and Wong, Elaine M.. 2011. “Bad to the Bone: Facial Structure Predicts Unethical Behaviour.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282(1817). doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.1193.Google Scholar
Hatemi, Peter K., Funk, Carolyn L., Maes, Hermine, Silberg, Judy, Medland, Sarah E., Martin, Nicholas, and Eaves, Lyndon. 2009a. “Genetic Influences on Political Attitudes Over the Life Course.” Journal of Politics 71(3):1141–1156.Google Scholar
Hatemi, Peter K., Alford, John R., Hibbing, John R., Martin, Nicholas G., and Eaves, Lindon J.. 2009b. “Is There a ‘Party’ in Your Genes?” Political Research Quarterly 62(3):584–600.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Adam. 2012. To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, Reprint ed. Boston, MA: Mariner Books.Google Scholar
Holbrooke, Richard C. 1999. To End a War. New York, NY: Random House.Google Scholar
Hooper, Paul L., Kaplan, Hillard S., and Boone, James L.. 2010. “A Theory of Leadership in Human Cooperative Groups.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 265(4):633–646.Google Scholar
Ishiyama, John T., and Kennedy, Ryan. 2001. “Superpresidentialism and Political Party Development in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.” Europe-Asia Studies 53(8):1177–1191.Google Scholar
Johnson, Dominic D. P. 2015. “Survival of the Disciplines: Is International Relations Fit for the New Millennium?” Millennium – Journal of International Studies 43(2):749–763.Google Scholar
Johnson, Dominic D. P., and Fowler, James H.. 2011. “The Evolution of Overconfidence.” Nature 477(7364):317–320.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, Dominic D. P., and MacKay, Niall J.. 2015. “Fight the Power: Lanchester’s Laws of Combat in Human Evolution.” Evolution and Human Behavior 36(2):152–163.Google Scholar
Johnson, Dominic D. P., and Toft, Monica D.. 2014. “Grounds for War: The Evolution of Territorial Conflict.” International Security 38(3):7–38.Google Scholar
Johnson, Dominic D. P., Wrangham, Richard W., and Rosen, Steven P.. 2002. “Is Military Incompetence Adaptive? An Empirical Test with Risk-Taking Behaviour in Modem Warfare.” Evolution and Human Behavior 23(4):245–264.Google Scholar
Johnson, Dominic D. P., McDermott, Rose, Barrett, Emily S., Cowden, Jonathan, Wrangham, Richard W., McIntyre, Matthew H., and Rosen, Stephen P.. 2006. “Overconfidence in Wargames: Experimental Evidence on Expectations, Aggression, Gender and Testosterone.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences 273(1600):2513–2520. doi:10.1098/Rspb.2006.3606.Google Scholar
Keeley, Lawrence H. 1996. War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0638/94008998-d.html.Google Scholar
Krasnow, Max M., Delton, Andrew W., Tooby, John, and Cosmides, Leda. 2013. “Meeting Now Suggests We Will Meet Again: Implications for Debates on the Evolution of Cooperation.” Scientific Reports 3. http://www.nature.com/articles/srep01747.Google Scholar
Kurzban, Robert, Tooby, John, and Cosmides, L.. 2001. “Can Race Be Erased? Coalitional Computation and Social Categorization.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98(26):15387–15392.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kurzban, Robert, and Neuberg, Steven. 2005. “Managing Ingroup and Outgroup Relations.” In The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, edited by David M. Buss, 653–675. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Lake, David A. 2010. “Two Cheers for Bargaining Theory: Assessing Rationalist Explanations of the Iraq War.” International Security 35(3):7–52.Google Scholar
LeBlanc, Steven A., and Register, Katherine E.. 2003. Constant Battles: The Myth of the Peaceful, Noble Savage. New York, NY: St. Martin’s. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/bios/hol052/2002036880.html.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Laurent, and Feldman, Marcus W.. 2008. “War and the Evolution of Belligerence and Bravery.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 275(1653):2877–2885.Google Scholar
Levy, Jack S. 1988. “Domestic Politics and War.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 18(4):653–673.Google Scholar
Levy, Jack S., and Thompson, William R.. 2011. The Arc of War: Origins, Escalation, and Transformation. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Liddle, James R., Shackelford, Todd K., and Weekes–Shackelford, Viviana A.. 2012. “Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War.” Review of General Psychology 16(1):24–36.Google Scholar
Lopez, Anthony C. 2010. “Evolution, Coalitional Psychology, and War.” I. H-Diplo ISSF Roundtable on “Biology and Security”.Google Scholar
Lopez, Anthony C.. 2014. “The Hawkish Dove: Evolution and the Logic of Political Behaviour.” Millennium – Journal of International Studies 43(1):66–91. doi:10.1177/0305829814527635.Google Scholar
Lopez, Anthony C., and McDermott, Rose. 2012. “Adaptation, Heritability, and the Emergence of Evolutionary Political Science.” Political Psychology 33(3):343–362.Google Scholar
Lopez, Anthony C., McDermott, Rose, and Petersen, Michael B.. 2011. “States in Mind: Evolution, Coalitional Psychology, and International Politics.” International Security 36(2):48–83.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Konrad. 1966. On Aggression. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Löwenheim, Oded, and Heimann, Gadi. 2008. “Revenge in International Politics.” Security Studies 17(4):685–724.Google Scholar
Mahajan, Neha, Martinez, Margaret A., Gutierrez, Natashya L., Diesendruck, Gil, Banaji, Mahzarin R., and Santos, Laurie R.. 2011. “The Evolution of Intergroup Bias: Perceptions and Attitudes in Rhesus Macaques.” file://localhost/Users/independence71/Documents/Papers2/Articles/2011/Mahajan/2011%20Mahajan.pdf.Google Scholar
Manson, Joseph H., and Wrangham, Richard W.. 1991. “Intergroup Aggression in Chimpanzees and Humans.” Current Anthropology 32(4):369–390.Google Scholar
Mathew, Sarah, and Boyd, Robert. 2011. “Punishment Sustains Large-Scale Cooperation in Prestate Warfare.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108(28):11375–11380. http://www.pnas.org/content/108/28/11375.short.Google Scholar
Maynard, Smith J. 1976. “Group Selection.” Quarterly Review of Biology 51:277–283.Google Scholar
Mayr, Ernst. 1983. “How to Carry Out the Adaptationist Program?” The American Naturalist 121(3):324–334.Google Scholar
McAndrew, Francis T., and Perilloux, Carin. 2012. “Is Self-Sacrificial Competitive Altruism Primarily a Male Activity?” Evolutionary Psychology 10(1):50–65.Google Scholar
McCullough, Michael. 2008. Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct, 1st ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
McCullough, Michael E., Kurzban, Robert, and Tabak, Benjamin A.. 2013. “Cognitive Systems for Revenge and Forgiveness.” The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36(1):1–15.Google Scholar
McDermott, Rose, Tingley, Dustin, Cowden, Jonathan, Frazetto, Giovanni, and Johnson, Dominic D. P.. 2009. “Monoamine Oxidase A Gene (MAOA) Predicts Behavioral Aggression Following Provocation.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(7):2118–2123.Google Scholar
McDermott, Rose, Fowler, James H., and Smirnov, Oleg. 2008. “On the Evolutionary Origin of Prospect Theory Preferences.” The Journal of Politics 70(2):335–350. doi:10.1017/S0022381608080341.Google Scholar
McDonald, Melissa M., Navarrete, Carlos D., and Vugt, Mark Van. 2012. “Evolution and the Psychology of Intergroup Conflict: The Male Warrior Hypothesis.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 367(1589):670–679.Google Scholar
Mercer, Jonathan. 1995. “Anarchy and Identity.” International Organization 49(2):229–252.Google Scholar
Michener, Willa. 2012. “The Individual Psychology of Group Hate.” Journal of Hate Studies 10(1):15–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milner, Helen. 1992. “International Theories of Cooperation Among Nations: Strengths and Weaknesses.” World Politics 44(3):466–496.Google Scholar
Mitani, John C., Watts, David P., and Sylvia, Amsler J.. 2010. “Lethal Intergroup Aggression Leads to Territorial Expansion in Wild Chimpanzees.” Current Biology 20(12):R507–R508.Google Scholar
Morgan, T. J. H., Rendell, L. E., Ehn, M., Hoppitt, W., and Laland, K. N.. 2011. “The Evolutionary Basis of Human Social Learning.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282(1817):653–662. doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.1172.Google Scholar
Navarrete, C. David, Kurzban, Robert, Fessler, Daniel M. T., and Kirkpatrick, L. A.. 2004. “Anxiety and Intergroup Bias: Terror Management or Coalitional Psychology?” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 7(4):370–397.Google Scholar
Nowak, Martin A. 2006. “Five Rules for the Evolution of Cooperation.” Science 314(5805):1560–1563.Google Scholar
Orbell, John, Morikawa, Tomonori, Hartwig, Jason, Hanley, James, and Allen, Nicholas. 2004. “‘Machiavellian’ Intelligence as a Basis for the Evolution of Cooperative Dispositions.” American Political Science Review 98(1):1–15.Google Scholar
Otterbein, Keith F. 2004. How War Began, 1st ed. College Station: TAMU Press.Google Scholar
Palmer, Craig. 2006. “The Peacemaking Primate?” Evolutionary Psychology 4:138–141.Google Scholar
Parker, Geoff. 1974. “Assessment Strategy and the Evolution of Fighting Behaviour.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 47(1):223–243.Google Scholar
Petersen, Michael B. 2009. “Public Opinion and Evolved Heuristics: The Role of Category-Based Inference.” Journal of Cognition and Culture 9(3):367–389.Google Scholar
Pietraszewski, David, Curry, Oliver S., Petersen, Michael B., Cosmides, Leda, and Tooby, John. 2015. “Constituents of Political Cognition: Race, Party Politics, and the Alliance Detection System.” Cognition 140:24–39.Google Scholar
Pinker, Steven. 1997. How the Mind Works. New York, NY: Norton.Google Scholar
Powell, Robert. 2006. “War as a Commitment Problem.” International Organization 60(1):169–203.Google Scholar
Price, Michael E., and Vugt, Mark Van. 2014. “The Evolution of Leader-Follower Reciprocity: The Theory of Service-for-Prestige.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8:363.Google Scholar
Prüfer, Kay, Munch, Kasper, Hellmann, Ines, Akagi, Keiko, Miller, Jason R., Walenz, Brian, Koren, Sergey, et al. 2012. “The Bonobo Genome Compared with the Chimpanzee and Human Genomes.” Nature 486(7404):527–531.Google Scholar
Puts, David A., Apicella, Coren L., and Cárdenas, Rodrigo A.. 2012. “Masculine Voices Signal Men’s Threat Potential in Forager and Industrial Societies.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279(1728):601–609.Google Scholar
Puurtinen, Mikael, and Mappes, Tapio 2009. “Between-Group Competition and Human Cooperation.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 276(1655):355–360.Google Scholar
Reiter, Dan. 2003. “Exploring the Bargaining Model of War.” Perspectives on Politics 1(1):27–43.Google Scholar
Ridley, Matt. 1997. The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation. New York, NY: Viking.Google Scholar
Rilling, James K., Scholz, Jan, Preuss, Todd M., Glasser, Matthew F., Errangi, Bhargav K., and Behrens, Timothy E.. 2011. “Differences Between Chimpanzees and Bonobos in Neural Systems Supporting Social Cognition.” Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 7(4):369–379. doi:10.1093/scan/nsr017.Google Scholar
Rosen, Stephen P. 2005. War and Human Nature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0654/2003065590-d.html.Google Scholar
Sapolsky, Robert M. 2006. “A Natural History of Peace.” Foreign Affairs 85(1):104–120.Google Scholar
Schaller, Mark, Simpson, Jeffry A., and Kenrick, Douglas T.. 2006. Evolution and Social Psychology. New York, NY: Psychology Press. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip069/2006005428.html.Google Scholar
Schaller, Mark, Park, Justin H., and Mueller, Annette. 2003. “Fear of the Dark: Interactive Effects of Beliefs About Danger and Ambient Darkness on Ethnic Stereotypes.” Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin 29(5):637–649.Google Scholar
Schelling, Thomas C. 1966. Arms and Influence. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Sell, Aaron, Tooby, John, and Cosmides, Leda. 2009. “Formidability and the Logic of Human Anger.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(35):15073–15078.Google Scholar
Sell, Aaron, Cosmides, Leda, Tooby, John, Sznycer, Daniel, von Rueden, Christopher, and Gurven, Michael. 2009. “Human Adaptations for the Visual Assessment of Strength and Fighting Ability from the Body and Face.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences 276(1656):575–584.Google Scholar
Shannon, Vaughn P., and Kowert, Paul A., eds. 2011. Psychology and Constructivism in International Relations: An Ideational Alliance. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Short, Lindsey A., Mondloch, Catherine J., McCormick, Cheryl M., Carré, Justin M., Ma, Ruqian, Fu, Genyue, and Lee, Kang. 2012. “Detection of Propensity for Aggression Based on Facial Structure Irrespective of Face Race.” Evolution and Human Behavior 33(2):121–129.Google Scholar
Sidanius, Jim, and Kurzban, Robert. 2003. “Evolutionary Approaches to Political Psychology.” In Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology, edited by Leonie Huddy, David O. Sears, and Jack S. Levy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Silverberg, James, and Gray, J. Patrick. 1992. Aggression and Peacefulness in Humans and Other Primates. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0604/91020318-d.html.Google Scholar
Smith, Kevin B., Larimer, Christopher W., Littvay, Levente, and Hibbing, John R.. 2007. “Evolutionary Theory and Political Leadership: Why Certain People Do Not Trust Decision Makers.” The Journal of Politics 69(2):285–299.Google Scholar
Smith, Kevin, Alford, John R., Hatemi, Peter K., Eaves, Lindon J., Funk, Carolyn, and Hibbing, John R.. 2012. “Biology, Ideology, and Epistemology: How Do We Know Political Attitudes are Inherited and Why Should We Care?” American Journal of Political Science 56(1):17–33.Google Scholar
Snyder, Jack L. 2002. “Anarchy and Culture: Insights from the Anthropology of War.” International Organization 56(1):7–45.Google Scholar
Sober, Elliott, and Wilson, David S.. 1999. Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Somit, Albert, and Peterson, Steven A.. 1997. Darwinism, Dominance, and Democracy: The Biological Bases of Authoritarianism. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Spisak, Brian R. 2012. “The General Age of Leadership: Older-Looking Presidential Candidates Win Elections During War.” PLoS ONE 7(5):e36945. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036945.Google Scholar
Spisak, Brian R., Dekker, Peter H., Krüger, Max, and van Vugt, Mark. 2012. “Warriors and Peacekeepers: Testing a Biosocial Implicit Leadership Hypothesis of Intergroup Relations Using Masculine and Feminine Faces.” PLoS ONE 7(1):e30399. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0030399.Google Scholar
Symons, Donald. 1979. The Evolution of Human Sexuality. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Symons, Donald. 1992. “On the Use and Misuse of Darwinism in the Study of Human Behavior.” In The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, edited by Jerome Barkow, Leda Cosmides, and John Tooby, 137–160. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tetlock, Philip E. 2003. “Thinking the Unthinkable: Sacred Values and Taboo Cognitions.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7(7):320–324.Google Scholar
Tetlock, Philip E., Kristel, Orie V., Elson, S. Beth, Green, Melanie C., and Lerner, Jennifer S.. 2000. “The Psychology of the Unthinkable: Taboo Trade-Offs, Forbidden Base Rates, and Heretical Counterfactuals.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78(5):853–870.Google Scholar
Thayer, Bradley A. 2004. Darwin and International Relations: On the Evolutionary Origins of War and Ethnic Conflict. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Thayer, Bradley A., and Hudson, Valerie M.. 2010. “Sex and the Shaheed: Insights from the Life Sciences on Islamic Suicide Terrorism.” International Security 34(4):37–62.Google Scholar
Thompson, William R. 2001. Evolutionary Interpretations of World Politics. New York, NY: Routledge. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy022/00066485.html.Google Scholar
Tiihonen, J., Rautiainen, M.-R., Ollila, H. M., Repo-Tiihonen, E., Virkkunen, M., Palotie, A., Pietiläinen, O., et al. 2014. “Genetic Background of Extreme Violent Behavior.” Molecular Psychiatry. doi:10.1038/mp.2014.130.Google Scholar
Tooby, John, and DeVore, Irven. 1987. “The Reconstruction of Hominid Behavioral Evolution Through Strategic Modeling.” In The Evolution of Human Behavior: Primate Models, edited by Warren G. Kinzey, 183–237. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Tooby, John, and Cosmides, Leda. 1988. “The Evolution of War and its Cognitive Foundations.” Institute for Evolutionary Studies Technical Report No. 88-1. http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/papers/EvolutionofWar.pdf.Google Scholar
Tooby, John and Cosmides, Leda. 1990. “On the Universality of Human Nature and the Uniqueness of the Individual: The Role of Genetics and Adaptation.” Journal of Personality 58(1):17–67.Google Scholar
Tooby, John, Cosmides, Leda, and Price, Michael E.. 2006. “Cognitive Adaptations for N-Person Exchange: The Evolutionary Roots of Organizational Behavior.” Managerial and Decision Economics 27(2–3):103–129.Google Scholar
Trivers, Robert. 1971. “The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism.” The Quarterly Review of Biology 46(1):35–57.Google Scholar
Trivers, Robert. 1972. “Parental Investment and Sexual Selection.” In Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man, edited by Bernard G. Campbell. Chicago, IL: Aldine Publishing.Google Scholar
Turchin, Peter. 2003. Historical Dynamics: Why States Rise and Fall. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Turney-High, Harry H. 1949. Primitive War: Its Practice and Concepts. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Van Vugt, Mark. 2009. “Sex Differences in Intergroup Competition, Aggression, and Warfare: The Male Warrior Hypothesis.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1167:124–134.Google Scholar
Van Vugt, Mark, and Kurzban, Rob. 2007. “Cognitive and Social Adaptations for Leadership and Followership: Evolutionary Game Theory and Group Dynamics.” In Evolution and the Social Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and Social Cognition, edited by Joseph P. Forgas, Martie G. Haselton, and William von Hippel, 229–243. New York, NY: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Verweij, Karin J. H., Yang, Jian, Lahti, Jari, Veijola, Juha, Hintsanen, Mirka, Pulkki-Råback, Laura, Heinonen, Kati, et al. 2012. “Maintenance of Genetic Variation in Human Personality: Testing Evolutionary Models by Estimating Heritability Due to Common Causal Variants and Investigating the Effect of Distant Inbreeding.” Evolution 66(10):3238–3251. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2012.01679.x.Google Scholar
Vugt, Mark Van, and Ahuja, Anjana. 2011. Naturally Selected: The Evolutionary Science of Leadership. New York, NY: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Wagner, John D., Flinn, Mark V., and England, Barry G.. 2002. “Hormonal Response to Competition Among Male Coalitions.” Evolution and Human Behavior 23(6):437–442.Google Scholar
Wagner, R. Harrison. 2000. “Bargaining and War.” American Journal of Political Science 44(3):469–484.Google Scholar
Williams, George C. 1966. Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, David S. 1997. “Human Groups as Units of Selection.” Science 276(5320):1816–1817.Google Scholar
Wilson, Michael L., Boesch, Christophe, Fruth, Barbara, Furuichi, Takeshi, Gilby, Ian C., Hashimoto, Chie, Hobaiter, Catherine L., et al. 2014. “Lethal Aggression in Pan is Better Explained by Adaptive Strategies than Human Impacts.” Nature 513(7518):414–417.Google Scholar
Wilson, Michael L., Kahlenberg, Sonya M., Wells, Michael, and Wrangham, Richard W.. 2012. “Ecological and Social Factors Affect the Occurrence and Outcomes of Intergroup Encounters in Chimpanzees.” Animal Behaviour 83(1):277–291.Google Scholar
Wrangham, Richard. 1999a. “Evolution of Coalitionary Killing.” Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 42:1–30.Google Scholar
Wrangham, Richard. 1999b. “Is Military Incompetence Adaptive?” Evolution and Human Behavior 20(1):3–17.Google Scholar
Wrangham, Richard, and Peterson, Dale. 1996. Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Wrangham, Richard W., and Glowacki, Luke. 2012. “Intergroup Aggression in Chimpanzees and War in Nomadic Hunter-Gatherers: Evaluating the Chimpanzee Model.” Human Nature 23(1):5–29. doi:10.1007/s12110-012-9132-1.Google Scholar
Wright, Quincy. 1983. A Study of War, 2nd ed., University Of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wright, Robert. 2000. NonZero: The Logic of Human Destiny. New York, NY: Pantheon Books. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/bios/random059/99040859.html.Google Scholar
Wynne-Edwards, V. C. 1962. Animal Dispersion in Relation to Social Behaviour. London: Oliver and Boyd.Google Scholar
Yamagishi, Toshio, Tanida, Shigehito, Mashima, Rie, Shimoma, Eri, and Kanazawa, Satoshi. 2003. “You Can Judge a Book by its Cover: Evidence That Cheaters May Look Different from Cooperators.” Evolution and Human Behavior 24(4):290–301.Google Scholar
Zak, Paul. 2006. “Neuroactive Hormones and Interpersonal Trust: International Evidence.” Economics and Human Biology 4(3):412–429.Google Scholar
Zak, Paul J., and Kugler, Jacek. 2011. “Neuroeconomics and International Studies: A New Understanding of Trust.” International Studies Perspectives 12(2):136–152.Google Scholar