The Nature of Human Violence
We may be living in one of the most peaceful periods in human history, but one need only glimpse the daily news to be confronted with humans’ propensity for violence.
Such reminders inevitably prompt questions about the nature of human violence, and researchers and philosophers have long hypothesized about the role genetics, culture, and evolutionary history play in our most virulent behaviors. Now, a new study seeks to quantify the degree to which our place on the evolutionary tree may contribute to humans’ violent behavior.
The study, published today in Nature, looked at the probability of dying at the hands of another person in more than 600 human populations dating back to the Paleolithic era. But since humans are not the only animals that kill members of the same species, the team collected information on violent behavior among related species as well.