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Male sex drive causes war

A team of researchers claim to have discovered that men are more naturally predisposed to violence than women.

The study, published by a team including Oxford University researchers, argues that ‘men are biologically programmed to be warriors because of their deep ancestral history of inter-tribal war and conflict.’

By contrast the researchers suggest that females have evolved a ‘tend and befriend’ response to protect their offspring.

Their findings may help to explain the origins of aggressive behaviour in modern-day tribal groups, both large and small, from nations at war to street gangs and even football hooligans.

Professor Mark van Vugt, Research Fellow at Oxford’s Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, noted the continued significance of these evolutionary traits in modern society. He commented, ‘A solution to conflict, which is an all too common problem in societies today, remains elusive,’ adding, ‘One reason for this might be the difficulty we have in changing our mindset, which has evolved over thousands of years.’

The study’s findings are based on examination of the ‘Male Warrior Hypothesis’ in contemporary evolutionary anthropology. The hypothesis suggests that men are more likely than women to discriminate against others considered outsiders. This trend is apparent across different time periods and cultures.

van Vugt added, ‘The human mind is shaped in a way that tends to perpetuate conflict with ‘outsiders.’ Our research finds that conflict between rival groups of men has presented opportunities to gain access to mates, territory and increased status. We believe this has resulted through natural selection in an evolved psychology amongst men to initiate and display acts of intergroup aggression.’

However Emily Cousens, Sarah Pine and Ali Johnson, representatives of the Wadham Feminists, placed emphasis on social convention as the cause of tribal male aggression. They told Cherwell, ‘Society creates and constructs what we think of as masculine and feminine and encourages and rewards different traits amongst males and females. This does not necessarily have a biological basis.’

An English fresher from St. Peter’s College gave a typically agressive male response, ‘I only eat raw flesh from creatures I have killed with my bare hands. I sustain myself upon the blood of the weak. I drink cement. I once impregnated a wild gorilla with pure evil. I bleed whisky. I simply walk into Mordor.’

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