14. Reactive and proactive human Aggression
Chapter 14 from "Testosteronecollapse"
Chimpanzees, even within their groups, frequently engage in physical conflict; you could never fit 200 of them on an airplane. Compared to them, we humans are incredibly peaceful in everyday life. The acquisition of language over the last few hundred thousand years has likely led to the agreement to eliminate overly aggressive individuals, and thus evolution turned us into "self-domesticated" beings [429]. According to the fossil bone discoveries, men became more feminine [79], and at the same time, humans—as with any domestication—became more like juveniles. This gave us a unique capacity for learning and cooperation: the "naked ape" became the "cooperative animal" [80].
The price for this, however, is the development of a herd instinct with a desire for conformity and "groupthink," which often enough eliminates independent thinking (Chapter 99). Only when the fuses occasionally blow – especially due to hunger, alcohol, or provocation – does reactive aggression among humans lead to violence, even homicide.
Our peacefulness is unfortunately limited to reactive aggression, while our proactive excesses in war exceed anything that occurs in animals and chimpanzees. Wrangham calls this discrepancy the "goodness paradox" [76], and it is the subject of Erich Fromm's book "The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness" [81]. As with chimpanzees, aggression often takes place in superior groups, thug squads, street gangs, mobs. According to surveys after the Rwandan genocide, men [82] and rarely even women [83] – just like the mice in the experiment – developed a taste for fighting, torturing, and killing as a pleasurable or even intoxicating experience, sometimes even with sexual overtones. Murder, war, or genocide turn us into "predatory apes." This is worth returning to.
The fact that we share this vicious, proactive aggression with our closest relatives – the chimpanzees – while it is completely absent in our other closest relatives – the bonobos and gorillas – suggests genetic programming of this vicious, proactive aggression. Various factors influence human aggressiveness. Twin studies confirm a role of heredity, and the neurotransmitter serotonin is also essential [84].
Regarding testosterone, the individual parallels to aggression in everyday life are minimal in men [85]. However, testosterone supports the pursuit of social status and, depending on the situation, also promotes so-called "prosocial behavior," such as initiative, sociability, generosity, protectiveness, and even fearless heroism [25, 86-88]. Testosterone leads to aggression in humans primarily after provocation [89] and in cases of a pre-existing dominant-impulsive personality [90].
Men [91] and women [92] in relationships have lower testosterone levels than singles and also commit fewer violent crimes, although in men the presence of children increases the effect on crime [93].
The countless behavioral studies are highly entertaining: Dabbs found higher testosterone levels in football players and actors in the USA than in pastors and missionaries [94].
Dabbs also found higher levels in unskilled professions [95]. It is recalled that testosterone slows language development. The "irony" of the testosterone effect – according to Dabbs – is that while it supported survival in the primitive wilderness, it now hinders the acquisition of professional qualifications [25]. After all, testosterone levels are higher at the top of male hierarchies, provided the stress hormone cortisol remains low [96]. Under testosterone administration, one can better withstand a threatening gaze [97], and self-interest is represented more bluntly [98] and more selfishly [99]. Among prison inmates, violent offenders have the highest testosterone levels and are less likely to comply with the rules [100], even among women [101]. Female lawyers also have higher testosterone levels than average women [25].
In the next chapter 15 compares the levels of aggressiveness between sexes. And this link takes you to the start of the book.
The German edition of this book is available as e-book, paperback or hardcover in any bookshop and here: https://shop.tredition.com/booktitle/Testosteronkollaps/W-349-585-556.
25. Dabbs, J., McBride and M. Dabbs, Godwin, Heroes, rogues, and lovers : testosterone and behavior. 2000, New York: McGraw-Hill; https://archive.org/details/heroesrogueslove00jame/mode/2up?view=theater.
76. Wrangham, R., The Goodness Paradox - The strange relationship between virtue and violence in human evolution. 2019, New York: Vintage.
79. Wrangham, R.W., Targeted conspiratorial killing, human self-domestication and the evolution of groupishness. Evol Hum Sci, 2021. 3: p. e26. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2021.20.
80. Morris, D., The naked ape - A zoologists study of the human animal. 1967, New York: McGraw Hill; https://archive.org/details/TheNakedApeMorrisDesmond.
81. Fromm, E., Die Anatomie der menschlichen Destruktivität. 1974, Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt (aus dem Amerikanischen von Liselotte und Ernst Mickel); https://de.annas-archive.org/slow_download/856ac8a500e11bcd3e52c68d7e53ae9a/0/0.
82. Elbert, T., J.K. Moran, and M. Schauer, Lust an Gewalt: appetitive Aggression als Teil der menschlichen Natur. e-Neuroforum, 2017. 23.(2): p. 96-104. https://doi.org/10.1515/nf-2016-0056.
83. Meyer-Parlapanis, D., et al., Appetitive Aggression in Women: Comparing Male and Female War Combatants. Front Psychol, 2015. 6: p. 1972. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01972.
84. Waltes, R., A.G. Chiocchetti, and C.M. Freitag, The neurobiological basis of human aggression: A review on genetic and epigenetic mechanisms. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet, 2016. 171.(5): p. 650-75. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.32388.
85. Geniole, S.N., et al., Is testosterone linked to human aggression? A meta-analytic examination of the relationship between baseline, dynamic, and manipulated testosterone on human aggression. Horm Behav, 2020. 123: p. 104644. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.104644.
86. Dreher, J.C., et al., Testosterone causes both prosocial and antisocial status-enhancing behaviors in human males. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2016. 113.(41): p. 11633-11638. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1608085113.
87. Kelly, A.M., J.A. Gonzalez Abreu, and R.R. Thompson, Beyond sex and aggression: testosterone rapidly matches behavioural responses to social context and tries to predict the future. Proc Biol Sci, 2022. 289.(1976): p. 20220453. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0453.
88. Wang, X., et al., Can testosterone modulate prosocial learning in healthy males? A double-blind, placebo-controlled, testosterone administration study. Biol Psychol, 2023. 178: p. 108524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108524.
89. Wagels, L., et al., Exogenous Testosterone Enhances the Reactivity to Social Provocation in Males. Front Behav Neurosci, 2018. 12: p. 37. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00037.
90. Carre, J.M., et al., Exogenous Testosterone Rapidly Increases Aggressive Behavior in Dominant and Impulsive Men. Biol Psychiatry, 2017. 82.(4): p. 249-256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2016.06.009.
91. Ahnert, L., et al., Fathering behavior, attachment, and engagement in childcare predict testosterone and cortisol. Dev Psychobiol, 2021. 63.(6): p. e22149. https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.22149.
92. van Anders, S.M., K.L. Goldey, and P.X. Kuo, The Steroid/Peptide Theory of Social Bonds: integrating testosterone and peptide responses for classifying social behavioral contexts. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2011. 36.(9): p. 1265-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.06.001.
93. Boothroyd, L.G. and C.P. Cross, The impact of parenthood on physical aggression: Evidence from criminal data. Aggress Behav, 2016. 42.(6): p. 577-584. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21652.
94. Dabbs, J.M., D. de la Rue, and P.M. Williams, Testosterone and occupational choice: actors, ministers, and other men. J Pers Soc Psychol, 1990. 59.(6): p. 1261-1265. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.6.1261.
95. Dabbs, J.M., Jr., Testosterone and Occupational Achievement. Social Forces, 1992. 70.(3): p. 813-824. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/70.3.813.
96. Sherman, G.D., et al., The interaction of testosterone and cortisol is associated with attained status in male executives. J Pers Soc Psychol, 2016. 110.(6): p. 921-9. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000063.
97. van Honk, J., P.A. Bos, and D. Terburg, Testosterone and Dominance in Humans: Behavioral and Brain Mechanisms, in New Frontiers in Social Neuroscience. Research and Perspectives in Neurosciences, vol 21, J. Decety and Y. Christen, Editors. 2014, Springer: Switzerland. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02904-7_12
98. Kutlikova, H.H., et al., Testosterone eliminates strategic prosocial behavior through impacting choice consistency in healthy males. Neuropsychopharmacology, 2023. 48.(10): p. 1541-1550. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-023-01570-y.
99. Wu, Y., et al., Testosterone administration increases social discounting in healthy males. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2019. 108: p. 127-134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.06.013.
100. Dabbs, J.M., Jr., G.J. Jurkovic, and R.L. Frady, Salivary testosterone and cortisol among late adolescent male offenders. J Abnorm Child Psychol, 1991. 19.(4): p. 469-78. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00919089.
101. Dabbs, J.M., Jr. and M.F. Hargrove, Age, testosterone, and behavior among female prison inmates. Psychosom Med, 1997. 59.(5): p. 477-80. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006842-199709000-00003.
429. R. L. Cieri, et al., Craniofacial Feminization, Social Tolerance, and the Origins of Behavioral Modernity, Current Anthropology 2014 Vol. 55 Issue 4 Pages 419-443, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271799237_Craniofacial_Feminization_Social_Tolerance_and_the_Origins_of_Behavioral_Modernity#fullTextFileContent