#195 Todd Shackelford: The Evolution and Varieties of Human Violence
Dr. Todd Shackelford is a Distinguished Professor and Chair of Psychology at Oakland University, as well as the Co-Director of the Evolutionary Psychology Lab there. He is the editor in chief of the academic journals Evolutionary Psychology and Evolutionary Psychological Science. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science.
In this episode, we explore the evolution of human violence. At the beginning, we define violence, and talk about ways of creating a classification system for it. We then get into three main types of violence and many of their ramifications – dyadic violence, collective/social violence, and self-inflicted violence. In dyadic violence, we discuss mostly violence within and between the sexes and violence within families. After that, we talk about collective violence, the relationship between morality and violence, war, collective punishment of individuals, and social ostracization. Finally, we get into self-inflicted violence, and focus almost exclusively on suicide and its many dimensions, also discussing depression and the problems with psychopathological approaches to human behavior. We refer specifically to the by-product theory of suicide as put forth by Cas Soper in his book, The Evolution of Suicide.
Time Links:
What is violence?
Violence is not a cultural construct
Trying to develop a classification system for human violence
Individuals are not indiscriminately violent
Dyadic violence. Intrasexual and intersexual conflict
Violence against family members, kin selection and reciprocal altruism
We have to be careful about psychopathology approaches
The relationship between morality and violence
Collective/social violence, in-group/out-group dynamics
War, in traditional and modern societies
Collective punishment of noncooperative individuals
Social ostracization
Self-inflicted violence, suicide (and depression)
Suicide as a by-product
Could an evolutionary understanding of psychological pain help us build a case for euthanasia?
The problems with psychopathological approaches to human behavior
Rape in warfare, genocide, and other underexplored aspects of human violence
Follow Dr. Shackelford’s work!
Follow Dr. Shackelford’s work:
Website: https://www.toddkshackelford.com/
Edited books: https://amzn.to/2W0g0r2
Relevant books:
The Evolution of Violence: https://amzn.to/2VcnEdh
The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War: https://amzn.to/2DXfIqq
The Evolution of Suicide: https://amzn.to/2LyGI62