Week 7 Lecture 6 - conflict

Question 1

What doe competition result in?

Answer 1

conflict

Question 2

What is conflict often resolved by?

Answer 2

aggression

Question 3

What are 3 types of conflict?

Answer 3

• scramble competition –> equal opportunity to access a limited resource
• contest competition –> winner takes all
• spiteful competition –> competing so someone else suffers

Question 4

Is warfare a cultural universal?

Answer 4

yes

Question 5

What is the best predictor of warfare? Why?

Answer 5

a high proportion of young men in a population:
- men physically better adapted for war (and violence in general

Question 6

Is warfare a cooperative enterprise?

Answer 6

yes

Question 7

For war to exist the benefits must outweigh the costs. Give some examples of benefits of war.

Answer 7

• access to mates and resources
• destruction of rivals

Question 8

What are 2 possible products of cultural group selection?

Answer 8

• parochialism
• xenophobia

Question 9

What is parochialism?

Answer 9

• in-group favouritism

Question 10

What is xenophobia?

Answer 10

• out-group hostility

Question 11

Why have kids?

Answer 11

• ultimate reason for having sex (not a good proximate reason)
• the kids have to be able to reproduce, otherwise there’s no point

Question 12

How do you calculate relatedness (r)?

Answer 12

• path analysis –> trace pedigree from actor to recipient
• 1/2 of each parent’s genes passes on to each offspring
• probability of sharing a gene is the product sum of the independent probabilities and the sum of the separate paths

Question 13

What is the parental investment theory?

Answer 13

• you have resources as a parent and you will invest them in your child
• this in turn should improve the child’s fitness
• but this may cost the parent’s ability to invest in other children

Question 14

What are the three fundamental trade-offs in parental investment theory

Answer 14

• energy devoted to parenting cannot be used for other functions (e.g., mating, maintenance)
• how much to invest in current as opposed to future offspring
• quantity vs quality

Question 15

What is the trade-off between quality and quantity of offspring also known as?

Answer 15

r/k theory

k = carrying capacity
r = growth rate

have either an r strategy (quantity) or a k strategy (quality)

Question 16

What did a study into parental investment theory and money left in wills find?

Answer 16

• people leave more in will for kin with higher relatedness
• however, leave more to kids and than siblings (have same relatedness)
• also leave more to spouses

Question 17

What are parental biases?

Answer 17

• adjust level of investment
• goal is to produce grandchildren

Question 18

Who invests the most to the least in grandparental investment?

Answer 18

• maternal grandmother (due to paternal certainty)
• maternal grandfather
• paternal grandmother
• paternal grandfather

Question 19

True or false?
adoptions are an exception to kin-based investment

Answer 19

true

Question 20

Why invest in kids?

Answer 20

• they are cute –> can be adaptive by acting as a proximate mechanism for extracting care –> can also be exploited
• neoteny (juvenalisation)
• delayed development
• elicit parental affection

Question 21

What are examples of in utero conflict?

Answer 21

• spontaneous abortion –> embryo must honestly signal quality by releasing a hormone
• competition for blood
• pregnancy sickness –> prevent ingestion of teratogen and abortifacients

Question 22

What is an example of post natal conflict?

Answer 22

• weaning conflict

Question 23

What are some examples of parent-offspring conflict with mum?

Answer 23

parental resources:
- the burden of twins
- widowhood
- young, single women and abortion

Question 24

What are some examples of parent-offspring conflict with mum (and dad)?

Answer 24

Cinderella effect
- stepparents are more likely to abuse and kill “their” kids than biological parents
- consistent with parental investment theory

Question 25

What are some examples of parent-offspring conflict with dad?

Answer 25

- paternity uncertainty --> infant appearance: anonymity, or like dad? in animals can lead to infanticide

Question 26

Does infanticide occur in humans?

Answer 26

yes - scheduling investment - culturally universal

Question 27

What are some causes of infanticide in humans?

Answer 27

- paternity uncertainty - offspring quality - paternal resources - selective infanticide

Question 28

What is selective infanticide?

Answer 28

- getting rid of offspring to achieve a certain sex ratio

Question 29

What is Trivers-Willard hypothesis?

Answer 29

- invest more in males when in good condition and more in females when in poor condition - invest most in the most valuable sex

Question 30

What are some more general examples of parent-offspring conflict?

Answer 30

- honour killings --> typically directed at sisters and daughters - chastity guarding --> reproductive control by parents - sibling rivalry, siblicide --> surplus offspring, siblings killing each other over resources

Question 31

Is aggression adaptive?

Answer 31

- co-opt resources - defence - intra-sexual competition --> particularly male-male competition - dominance and status - deterrence of aggression --> e.g., punishment can deter theft - inter-sexual coercion

Question 32

Why is there sexual aggression?

Answer 32

- males benefit more from polygyny, females benefit more from monogamy - the result is sexual jealousy - males more likely to regard mates as "property" leading to sexual coercion - rape has been proposed as a conditional mating strategy

Question 33

What are the sex differences in aggression?

Answer 33

- women less physically violent than men - women more likely to kill men out of self defence

Question 34

80% homicides committed by men, regardless of culture What could this be a by product of?

Answer 34

- sexual jealousy - sexual loss --> abandoned males more likely to kill

Question 35

True or false? men are more likely to be victims of aggression, especially young men

Answer 35

true

Question 36

Is aggression learned?

Answer 36

- evidence for video games and TV leading to violence are sketchy at best

Question 37

Is aggression cultural?

Answer 37

- there are cultural elements - culture of honour - southern states of US are more aggressive to insults regarding reputation

Question 38

Is there evolutionary origins to aggression?

Answer 38

- based on an evolutionary (sociobiological) approach to anthropology - successful warriors had more offspring - highly controversial work led to fierce attacks by anthropologists potentially yes