Why men 'exhibit warrior tendencies'

A new study has looked into how our psychology concerning war and conflict may have been shaped by our evolutionary past. Following a review of current academic literature by psychologists, biologists and anthropologists, the study concludes that men are biologically programmed to be warriors because of our deep ancestral history of inter-tribal war and conflict.

Meanwhile, females have evolved a response to threats from male outsiders where they 'tend and befriend' as a way of protecting their offspring, suggests the study.

In a paper published in the journal, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, researchers from Oxford, VU Amsterdam, and Michigan universities argue that although these responses may have evolved as a way of coping with threats posed by outsiders, they 'might not be functional in modern times and are often counter-productive'.

The researchers suggest that the study may help us to understand the evolutionary and biological roots of the aggressive behaviour between 'tribal' factions in today's world.

The study points out that in modern cultures, this 'evolved' behaviour can be observed in large-scale conflicts between countries and nations as well as in relatively small-scale skirmishes, such as between supporters of rival football teams or street gangs.

Mark van Vugt, Professor of Psychology at the VU University Amsterdam and Research Fellow at the Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology (ICEA) at the University of Oxford, 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.