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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science pp 1–11Cite as

Male Adaptations that Facilitate Success in War

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Synonyms

Coalitional psychology; Intergroup conflict; Male warrior hypothesis

Definition

The male warrior hypothesis claims that the sex-specific adaptive pressures exerted by recurrent lethal intergroup conflicts in our ancestral past favored the evolution of a cognitive machinery enabling men to form and maintain aggressive coalitions with other males to the end of dominating and exploiting out-groups.

Introduction

War is a gruesome phenomenon. Throughout (pre)history, humans engaging in this brutish activity have brought death, suffering, and destruction to an incalculable amount of their conspecifics. And although some scholars’ estimates indicate that the relative impact of wars on human survival and living conditions has been on the decline during the last couple of centuries (Pinker 2011), wars still continue to exert their devastating force today.

From an evolutionary perspective, wars pose a nontrivial puzzle. Why is it that humans are obviously ready and willing to put their...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philipps University Marburg, Marburg, Germany

    Hannes Rusch

  2. VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Mark van Vugt

Authors
  1. Hannes Rusch
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  2. Mark van Vugt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hannes Rusch .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Melissa McDonald

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Rusch, H., van Vugt, M. (2017). Male Adaptations that Facilitate Success in War. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_950-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_950-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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