title: The evolutionary psychology of violence.
abstract: This paper reviews theory and research on the evolutionary psychology of violence. First, I examine evidence suggesting that humans have experienced an evolutionary history of violence. Next, I discuss violence as a context-sensitive strategy that might have provided benefits to our ancestors under certain circumstances. I then focus on the two most common forms of violence that plague humans -violence over status contests and intimate partner violence- outlining psychological mechanisms involved in each. Finally, I suggest that greater progress will be made by shifting the study from contexts to mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: California State University, USA. agoetz@fullerton.edu
authors.forename: Aaron T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Goetz
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D006801:Humans; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*