Synonyms
Definition
The male warrior hypothesis is an evolutionary theory that refers to the idea that men’s behaviors and cognitions are more strongly intergroup-oriented than women’s, such that men likely evolved psychological mechanisms that enable the formation of coalitions that are capable of carrying out acts of aggression and violence on members of outgroups as a means to acquire or protect reproductive resources. These mechanisms are purported to have developed as the result of an ancestral history that was largely influenced by frequent and violent intergroup conflict among males, in which success increased their reproductive fitness.
Introduction
Due to reproductive and survival benefits, humans (and other species) tend to come together in groups (Baumeister and Leary 1995). Although costly, intergroup conflict is, and has been, pervasive among humans (Bowles 2009). When these conflicts involve acts of aggression and violence, research finds...
References
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497–529.
Bowles, S. (2009). Did warfare among ancestral hunter-gatherers affect the evolution of human social behaviors? Science, 324, 1293–1298.
Buss, D. M. (1999). Evolutionary psychology. London: Allyn & Bacon.
Chagnon, N. A. (1988). Life histories, blood revenge, and warfare in a tribal population. Science, 239, 985–992.
Chang, L., Lu, H. J., Li, H., & Li, T. (2011). The face that launched a thousand ships: The mating-warring association in men. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 976–984.
Ekehammar, B., & Sidanius, J. (1982). Sex differences in socio-political ideology: A replication and extension. British Journal of Social Psychology, 21, 249–257.
Gabriel, S., & Gardner, W. L. (1999). Are there “his” and “hers” types of interdependence? The implications of gender differences in collective versus relational interdependence for affect, behavior, and cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 642–655.
Goldstein, J. S. (2003). War and gender: How gender shapes the war system and vice versa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, D. D. P., McDermott, R., Barrett, E. S., Cowden, J., Wrangham, R., McIntyre, M. H., & Rosen, S. P. (2006). Overconfidence in wargames: Experimental evidence on expectations, aggression, gender and testosterone. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 273, 2513–2520.
Lee, I.-C., Pratto, F., & Johnson, B. T. (2011). Intergroup consensus/disagreement in support of group-based hierarchy: An examination of socio-structural and psycho-cultural factors. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 1029–1064.
McDonald, M. M., Navarrete, C. D., & Van Vugt, M. (2012). Evolution and the psychology of intergroup conflict: The male warrior hypothesis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 367, 670–679.
Palmer, C. T., & Tilley, C. F. (1995). Sexual access to females as a motivation for joining gangs: An evolutionary approach. Journal of Sex Research, 32, 213–217.
Pemberton, M. B., Insko, C. A., & Schopler, J. (1996). Memory for and experience of differential competitive behavior of individuals and groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 953–966.
Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L. M., & Malle, B. F. (1994). Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 741–763.
Schaller, M., Park, J. H., & Mueller, A. (2003). Fear of the dark: Interactive effects of beliefs about danger and ambient darkness on ethnic stereotypes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 637–649.
Van Vugt, M. (2009). Sex differences in intergroup competition, aggression, and warfare: The male warrior hypothesis. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1167, 124–134.
Van Vugt, M., De Cremer, D., & Janssen, D. (2007). Gender differences in cooperation and competition: The male-warrior hypothesis. Psychological Science, 18, 19–23.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Southard, A.C. (2018). Male Warrior Hypothesis. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_645-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_645-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences