#149 Martin Daly: Evolution, Inequality, Violence, And Homicide
Dr. Martin Daly is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University, Canada. His areas of interest are human violence (especially homicide), family relations, and evolutionary psychology. He is a founding member and past-president (1991-1993) of the Human Behavior & Evolution Society (HBES), and with his late wife Margo Wilson, he served as co-editor-in-chief of the society’s journal Evolution & Human Behaviour for its first decade. In 1998, Dr. Daly was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. They also co-authored three books: Sex, Evolution and Behavior (1978, 1983), Homicide (1988), and The Truth about Cinderella (1998). Dr. Daly’s latest book (July, 2016) is entitled Killing the Competition: Economic Inequality and Homicide.
In this episode, the conversation revolves around violence and homicide, and the main topics of the books Homicide and Killing the Competition. First, we talk about the evolutionary bases of violent behavior, as a means of controlling other people’s behavior and regulating relationships. We also go through the evolved sex differences in aggressiveness, as a result of intrasexual and intersexual competition. Then, we talk specifically about homicide, and why it might also happen in familial conflicts, even though it is quite rare. We also refer to the potential problems with having an approach that favors pathologizing all types of violent and deviant behavior. Finally, we talk about the relationship between economic inequality and homicide, as explored in Killing the Competition, and how it affects primarily young men, and the environmental and social circumstances that trigger it. Toward the end, we also refer to the importance of the State having the monopoly over violence and its relationship with social stability, and the benefits that we get from economic redistribution.
Time Links:
The evolved function of violence
The evolutionary costs and benefits of violence
Sex differences in aggressiveness and violent behavior
Intrasexual and intersexual competition
About homicide
Familial violence and homicide
Is the best approach to pathologize violent behavior?
Killing the Competition, and the relationship between economic inequality and homicide
Inequality, disadvantaged young men, violence and reproductive success
Killing and waging war to gain access to sexual resources
Violence in criminal gangs
Hobbes, the Leviathan, and State monopoly over violence
Could education on the evolutionary bases of violence help preventing it?
Universal Basic Income, and economic redistribution
Redistribution and innovation
Follow Dr. Daly’s work!
Follow Dr. Daly’s work:
Faculty page: https://tinyurl.com/ybdd4mw2
Personal website: https://www.martindaly.ca/
Homicide: https://tinyurl.com/ycscnqhb
Killing the Competition: https://tinyurl.com/yb765eq2
Books on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/y8kmdck2