Does infectious disease cause global variation in the frequency of intrastate armed conflict and civil war?

Letendre, Kenneth; Fincher, Corey L.; Thornhill, Randy

doi:10.1111/j.1469-185x.2010.00133.x

Cited by 96 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(155 reference statements)

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“…[49,50]). We have criticized this claim on evolutionary theoretical grounds: the high cost of aggression leads to the expectation that aggressive acts will be engaged in primarily when individuals perceive benefits can be gained and not merely when they are uncomfortable from ambient conditions (see [51]). The positive association between aggression and temperature is undisputed.…”

Section: Extending the Parasite-stress Theory Of Values To Interpersomentioning

confidence: 99%

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Parasite stress promotes homicide and child maltreatment

Thornhill

Fincher

2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Researchers using the parasite-stress theory of human values have discovered many cross-cultural behavioural patterns that inform a range of scholarly disciplines. Here, we apply the theory to major categories of interpersonal violence, and the empirical findings are supportive. We hypothesize that the collectivism evoked by high parasite stress is a cause of adult-on-adult interpersonal violence. Across the US states, parasite stress and collectivism each positively predicts rates of men's and women's slaying of a romantic partner, as well as the rate of male-honour homicide and of the motivationally similar felony-related homicide. Of these four types of homicide, wealth inequality has an independent effect only on rates of male-honour and felony-related homicide. Parasite stress and collectivism also positively predict cross-national homicide rates. Child maltreatment by caretakers is caused, in part, by divestment in offspring of low phenotypic quality, and high parasite stress produces more such offspring than low parasite stress. Rates of each of two categories of the child maltreatment-lethal and non-lethal-across the US states are predicted positively by parasite stress, with wealth inequality and collectivism having limited effects. Parasite stress may be the strongest predictor of interpersonal violence to date.

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Section: Extending the Parasite-stress Theory Of Values To Interpersomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By no means is the application of the parasite-stress theory limited only to interpersonal violence. It also appears to help elucidate the other major category of violence, inter-group violence or warfare [51,64].…”

Section: Overall Summary Of Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parasite stress promotes homicide and child maltreatment

Thornhill

Fincher

2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…Ecological variation in pathogen prevalence is correlated with the percentage of people in a population who explicitly express intolerance for 'people of a different race' in their neighbourhood [39], and with regional frequency of ethnopolitical warfare [40]. Additionally, collectivistic value systems-which emphasize sharp boundaries between 'us' and 'them'-are especially likely to exist in social ecologies characterized historically by especially high levels of pathogen prevalence [41].…”

Section: Discriminatory Sociality (Prejudice)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The behavioural immune system and the psychology of human sociality

Schaller

2011

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

314

311

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Because immunological defence against pathogens is costly and merely reactive, human anti-pathogen defence is also characterized by proactive behavioural mechanisms that inhibit contact with pathogens in the first place. This behavioural immune system comprises psychological processes that infer infection risk from perceptual cues, and that respond to these perceptual cues through the activation of aversive emotions, cognitions and behavioural impulses. These processes are engaged flexibly, producing context-contingent variation in the nature and magnitude of aversive responses. These processes have important implications for human social cognition and social behaviour-including implications for social gregariousness, person perception, intergroup prejudice, mate preferences, sexual behaviour and conformity. Empirical evidence bearing on these many implications is reviewed and discussed. This review also identifies important directions for future research on the human behavioural immune system-including the need for enquiry into underlying mechanisms, additional behavioural consequences and implications for human health and well-being.

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“…As a result, such collectivist societies often suff er from poverty and inequality, which leads to withinstate fractionation and violence in competition for resources. An analysis of two data sets on intrastate armed confl ict around the world confi rmed that pathogen stress positively predicts the frequency of such violence, from small-scale confl icts to largescale civil wars (Letendre, Fincher, & Th ornhill, 2010;Letendre et al, Chapter 21, this volume).…”

Section: Individual and Cultural Diff Erences In Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War

Liddle

Shackelford

Weekes–Shackelford

2012

The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War

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We review and discuss the evolutionary psychological literature on violence, homicide, and war in humans and nonhumans, and in doing so we argue that an evolutionary perspective can substantially enhance our understanding of these behaviors. We provide a brief primer on evolutionary psychology, describing basic tenets of the field. The theories of sexual selection and parental investment are explained and subsequently used to highlight the evolutionary logic underlying the use of violence by humans and other animals. Our examination of violent behavior begins with a focus on nonhuman animals, reviewing the different contexts in which violence occurs and discussing how an evolutionary perspective can explain why it occurs in these contexts. We then examine violence in humans and illustrate the similarities and differences between human and nonhuman violence. Finally, we summarize what an evolutionary perspective can offer in terms of understanding violence, homicide, and war, and we discuss directions for future research.

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Does infectious disease cause global variation in the frequency of intrastate armed conflict and civil war?

Cited by 96 publications

References 55 publications

Parasite stress promotes homicide and child maltreatment

Parasite stress promotes homicide and child maltreatment

The behavioural immune system and the psychology of human sociality

Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War

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