States in Mind Anthony C. Lopez, Rose Mcdermott, and Michael
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States in Mind States in Mind Anthony C. Lopez, Rose McDermott, and Evolution, Coalitional Psychology, and Michael Bang International Politics Petersen One of the most com- monly studied puzzles in international politics is the recurrence of coalitional competition and aggression between political groups such as states. Indeed, this pattern constitutes an enduring and central feature of all politics. Yet de- spite the tragic endurance of this leitmotif throughout history, its manifestation varies through time and space. Some wars are fought for honor or revenge, whereas others are ignited for mere opportunism or as a consequence of vari- ous misperceptions, whatever their source. We argue that evolutionary theory provides a theoretical framework that can explain both the stubborn endur- ance and dynamic diversity of coalitional behavior. Debate on the relevance of “human nature” and biological factors for explaining political behavior is not new.1 Yet the comprehensive value of evo- lutionary theory for explaining important aspects of international politics has not been adequately explicated. As we discuss below, this has in part been a consequence of general skepticism about the validity and scope of evolution- ary theory for explaining political behavior. We argue, however, that evolu- tionary psychology can generate falsiªable ex ante predictions that are of central interest to the study of international politics, and we offer several hy- potheses derived from this model to illustrate the depth of this approach. Evo- lutionary psychologists have already generated a large body of work that suggests that the human brain contains webs of psychological mechanisms, or adaptations, each designed to operate in domains relevant to modern politics, and which emerged as a product of natural selection. Furthermore, researchers have begun to realize that humans come equipped with an evolved “coali- Anthony C. Lopez is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Brown University. Rose McDermott is Profes- sor of Political Science at Brown University. Michael Bang Petersen is Associate Professor of Political Sci- ence and Government at Aarhus University. The authors would like to thank Leda Cosmides, Andrew Delton, Max Krasnow, Aaron Sell, John Tooby, and the participants of the research seminar at the Center for Evolutionary Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for critical feedback on concepts developed in this arti- cle. For helpful comments on earlier drafts, the authors are indebted to Benjamin Cohen, Jonathan Cowden, Jonathan Mercer, and the anonymous reviewers. 1. John R. Alford and John R. Hibbing, “The Origin of Politics: An Evolutionary Theory of Politi- cal Behavior,” Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 2, No. 4 (December 2004), pp. 707–723; Bradley A. Thayer, “Bringing in Darwin: Evolutionary Theory, Realism, and International Politics,” Interna- tional Security, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Fall 2000), pp. 124–151; and Duncan S.A. Bell and Paul K. MacDon- ald, “Correspondence: Start the Evolution without Us,” International Security, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Summer 2001), pp. 187–194. International Security, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Fall 2011), pp. 48–83 © 2011 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 48 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/ISEC_a_00056 by guest on 28 September 2021 States in Mind 49 tional psychology,” as a consequence of adaptive problems faced by our ances- tors related to social and political life such as collective action, coalition formation and maintenance, cheater detection, resource division, the negotia- tion of status hierarchies, and war.2 Note that all of these problems have obvi- ous modern analogues that leaders and countries confront daily and that constitute the central themes of the study of international politics. Thus, we argue that evolutionary psychology provides a necessary frame- work for explaining the puzzling endurance of many types of international be- havior, such as coalitional aggression and its modern manifestation, war. We aim to show that evolutionary psychology can indeed offer useful and falsi- ªable hypotheses for international politics, and that misgivings regarding such an approach have no theoretical merit. Furthermore, this approach is dynamic enough to encompass disparate motives and preference structures—egoism and cooperativeness; rational and “irrational” behavior—under the same ex- planatory rubric that can help to solve old puzzles and shed light on new discoveries. These goals are accomplished in three sections. First, we introduce the theo- retical framework of evolutionary psychology. Second, we respond to what we identify as two major misconceptions about the use of evolutionary theory for explaining political behavior. The ªrst misconception argues that evolutionary models are “politically indeterminate,” and the second argues that evolution- ary theory cannot be used to generate predictions in the realm of social or political behavior. In the third section, we develop and present speciªc hy- potheses within three areas of inquiry: (1) perception and representation of po- litical coalitions such as states; (2) the facilitation of action within and between coalitions; and (3) sex differences in political attitudes and behavior. These three areas make up a signiªcant aspect of what we refer to as human “coali- tional psychology.” This coalitional psychology represents the set of underly- ing psychological mechanisms, designed by natural selection, that enables and generates behavior among and within coalitions. As we discuss in detail be- low, this coalitional psychology is active in the management of internal coali- 2. John Tooby, Leda Cosmides, and Michael E. Price, “Cognitive Adaptations for n-Person Ex- change: The Evolutionary Roots of Organizational Behavior,” Managerial and Decision Economics, Vol. 27, Nos. 2–3 (March–May 2006), pp. 103–129; Azar Gat, War in Human Civilization (Oxford: Ox- ford University Press, 2006); Christopher Boehm, Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999); Michael E. Price, Leda Cosmides, and John Tooby, “Punitive Sentiment as an Anti-Free Rider Psychological Device,” Evolution and Human Behavior, Vol. 23, No. 3 (May 2002), pp. 203–231; Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works (New York: W.W. Norton, 1997); and Richard W. Wrangham, “Evolution of Coalitionary Killing,” Year- book of Physical Anthropology, Vol. 42 (1999), pp. 1–30. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/ISEC_a_00056 by guest on 28 September 2021 International Security 36:2 50 tion dynamics such as leadership and cooperation, as well as in the external dynamics of competition and aggression (war) among coalitions. Evolutionary Psychology: A Theoretical Introduction Evolutionary psychology is an approach to understanding behavior that ar- gues that the functional structure of the human brain has been designed by natural selection to respond reliably and efªciently to adaptive problems in our ancestral social and ecological environments.3 An “adaptive problem” is any challenge, threat, or opportunity faced by an organism in its environment that is evolutionarily recurrent (i.e., not a onetime or otherwise novel problem) and affects reproductive success. For example, coalitional aggression, or war, has been a persistent social challenge faced by humans over the course of their evolution.4 Researchers have provided theoretical and empirical support for the existence of evolved psychological mechanisms in humans designed by natural selection to navigate the challenge of coalitional conºict.5 In this arti- cle, we use the word “mechanism” to refer to psychological adaptations that have been designed by natural selection. These psychological mechanisms, as our main unit of analysis, are physically instantiated systems in the brain that take a range of input from within and around the organism, and transform 3. Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, “From Evolution to Behavior: Evolutionary Psychology as the Missing Link,” in John Dupré, ed., The Latest on the Best: Essays on Evolution and Optimality (Cam- bridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1987), pp. 276–306; Jerome H. Barkow, Leda Cosmides, and John Tooby, eds., The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); and David M. Buss, ed., The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley and Sons, 2005). Our discussion of evolutionary psychology follows the adaptationist approach of evolutionary biology’s “modern synthesis.” See George C. Williams, Ad- aptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966); and Ernst Mayr, “How to Carry Out the Adaptationist Pro- gram?” American Naturalist, Vol. 121, No. 3 (March 1983), pp. 324–334. 4. Lawrence H. Keeley, War before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996); Keith F. Otterbein, “The Origins of War,” Critical Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Spring 1997), pp. 251–277; Azar Gat, “The Human Motivational Complex: Evolutionary Theory and the Causes of Hunter-Gatherer Fighting, Pt. 1: Primary Somatic and Reproductive Causes,” Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 73, No. 1 (January 2000), pp. 20–34; and Steven A. LeBlanc and Kath- erine E. Register, Constant Battles: The Myth of the Peaceful, Noble Savage (New York: St. Martin’s, 2003). 5. John Tooby