Understanding Human Aggression in Group Contexts: An Evolutionary Perspective, Slides of Cognitive Psychology

Download Understanding Human Aggression in Group Contexts: An Evolutionary Perspective and more Slides Cognitive Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Evolutionary Explanation for Human Aggression Group Display 1 BATs Outline the nature of group display in humans (E) Describe psychologist’s attempts to explain group display in humans (D) Apply the notions of group display to specific examples of crowd behaviour (B) Docsity.com Group Display • Individuals in a group behave far more aggressively than on their own • What examples can you think of? 2 Docsity.com Explanations of Group Display in Humans 1.WAR • Men only willing to fight as part of coalition if confident of victory. • In Yanomamo of Amazon rainforest, frequent fighting between villages over abduction of women. (Chagnon 1968) • Success in battle > high status • Successful warriors had more wives and children • Young men who had not killed were rarely married. Docsity.com • Pinker (1997) – In WW2, Germans raped women in concentration camps. • More than 20,000 Muslim girls and women raped as part of genocide programme in Bosnia. • Aim was to make the women pregnant and raise the children as Serbs, or terrorise them into fleeing the land (Allen 1996) Docsity.com • Evolutionary theory can explain tribal warfare where casualties are few and rewards, great. • But in recent human history, prolonged warfare results in significant losses on both sides. • Wrangham (1999) – military incompetence is result of adaptive self-deception. • Positive illusions about winning will improve cohesion and co-operation and may bluff the opposition BUT may also lead to inaccurate assessment of own and opponents’ abilities. Docsity.com • Victory in matches also brings status to fans • Cialdini et al (1976) ‘basking in reflected glory’ – after a university football team had performed well, students more likely to wear university scarves and sweaters. Docsity.com • Marsh (1978) – football hooliganism is human equivalent of ‘ceremonial conflict’ in animals. • Exclusively male, ritualised symbolic aggression restrained by desire to minimise harm and death. • Intention is to humiliate opposition and secure submission. Football hooliganism Is this a realistic interpretation though? Research instances of football hooliganism to criticise this view. Marsh 1978 - enables young males to achieve sense of personal self worth and identity amongst peers. An alternative ‘career structure ‘ for working class males. p73 Docsity.com • Xenophobia on the terraces • Wilson (1975) - Xenophobia appears in ‘virtually every group of animals displaying higher forms of social organisation.’ • Natural selection - favoured genes that caused greater altruism to members of their own group, but intolerant of outsiders. • Shaw and Wong (1989) - suspicion of other groups advantageous - avoid attack - more offspring survive • Mac Donald (1992)- adaptive to exaggerate negative stereotypes about outsiders - overperception of threat less costly. Football hooliganism Read ‘Club or Country? p72 and Real World Application p73 Docsity.com