Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence

"Richard Wrangham is in evolutionary biology at Harvard and this is an evolutionary analysis, a very compelling one, of the origins of human violence and its analogue to aggression in chimpanzees. Demonic Males is instructive, especially in informing us about the sexual expression of aggression and how sex differences emerge in the use of physical aggression. Why is it that physical aggression occurs in higher degrees among males? Wrangham uses his erudition and impressive evidence to describe the origins of this difference and why it’s meaningful. This work is important because it tells us a lot about the sources of conflict among humans. Political psychologists look at human behavior in the context of large complex conflicts, including war. How those conflicts emerge and are influenced by biology point the way to how we can avoid and end conflict. Human biology influences all of us through emotions. How do emotions get activated and affect social situations? How does fear affect our attitudes towards immigration? How does disgust influence our attitude toward transgender bathrooms? How does anger affect our propensity for war? These important aspects of human nature play out in political ways because we’re political animals. We develop rules and institutions that are designed to allow us to live in a society together. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . A big part of politics is trying to get people to behave the way you want them to behave. There are some basic concepts, not a lot, that you can see play out across human history in different ways. The particular manifestation of them may change with time and culture but the underlying dynamic comes from the longstanding ability of our ancestors to thrive, survive and mate to produce another generation. Those concepts include resource allocation—how do you decide who gets the food or the territory or whatever. And issues related to sex—who gets control of reproduction. And in-group preservation—how do you protect your group from predation and how do you keep out others. This is where immigration comes in, and issues related to war. “This work is important because it tells us a lot about the sources of conflict among humans.” These underlying political , psychological and social goals manifest in different ways. The modern instantiation can look very different when you consider a topic like sex. A hundred years ago there were rife fights about prostitution. Today the fight is about transgender bathrooms. Yet the underlying issue remains—who gets to decide what is appropriate sexual behavior. So although the instantiation of struggles changes across time and culture, the underlying impetus remains the same. We’ve demonstrated that these impetuses have a heritable component. You can find some source of these impetuses in human genetic factors. That is why these impetuses arise throughout human history, no matter where you are, no matter when you are."