Boys will be boys: Men are wired to be aggressive

Some scientists--at least the ones who came up with the study cited below--have apparently never experienced aggression in academia, and are therefore substituting a "review of the academic literature" for the experiences of a normal life. As reported by Nick Collins of the London Daily Telegraph, January 23, 2012:

The "male warrior" instinct means that men are programmed to be aggressive towards anyone they view as an outsider, a study claims.

In evolutionary terms an instinct for violence against others helped early men improve their status and gain more access to mates, but in modern terms this can translate into large-scale wars.

In contrast women are naturally equipped with a "tend and befriend" attitude which means they seek to resolve conflicts peacefully in order to protect their children, researchers said.

The study, published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, is a review of evolutionary evidence for the so-called "male warrior hypothesis".

It claims that in every culture throughout history, men have been more likely than women to use violence when confronted by people they saw as outsiders.

The "tribal" attitude of men, ultimately aimed at boosting their chances of reproducing, is similar to the territorial behaviour of chimpanzees, it was claimed.

The study also examined evidence which suggests men have a stronger sense of group identity than women, and that they will develop closer ties with others in their group if they are in competition with rivals.

Although men's hostile responses most likely evolved to combat the threat from outsiders, they "might not be functional in modern times and are often counterproductive," experts said.

Over time this has resulted in full-scale wars between countries and empires, and also in scraps and skirmishes between rival groups of football supporters and urban gangs.

Prof Mark van Vugt, who led the study, said: "A solution to conflict, which is an all too common problem in societies today, remains elusive. One reason for this might be the difficulty we have in changing our mindset, which has evolved over thousands of years.

"Our review of the academic literature suggests that the human mind is shaped in a way that tends to perpetuate conflict with ‘outsiders’."

The original article, titled Evolution and the psychology of intergroup conflict: the male warrior hypothesis, is by Melissa M. McDonald, Carlos David Navarrete1, and Mark Van Vugt, and appears in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 367 (1589), March 5, 2012, pp. 670-679.

Young people don't want to let adults in on their conversation

The slang you use gives away your age? Far out! This article leaves one question unanswered: Why would any adult want to talk with today's foul-mouthed, body-pierced, tattooed freaks yutes?

Slang vocabulary, like musical tastes, or physical height, may be one of those things that is more or less fully formed before we exit our teens...

Pamela Munro, a linguist and editor of U.C.L.A Slang 6, defines slang as "language whose use serves to mark the user as belonging to some distinct group within society."

In other words, when your kid is slangin,’ he’s really saying he is different than you — and he likes it that way.

"Anthropologically, kids form themselves," said Munro. "Slang is a kind of code or password if people are trying to show that they are a member of your group."