Vakgroep Criminologie, Strafrecht en Sociaal Recht 2015 The Dark Side of Human Sociality The Evolutionary Roots of Contemporary Prejudice and Bias Motivated Behaviors By: Ben Heylen Dissertation submitted to Ghent University for the degree of Doctor in Criminology Supervisor: prof. dr. Lieven Pauwels Guiding committee: Prof. dr. Johan Braeckman Prof. dr. Alain Van Hiel Prof. dr. Tom Decorte This study is dedicated to My late father &Sir Karl Popper Both giants, standing on whose shoulders Allowed me to see further 2 Contents Summary .................................................................................................................................... 9 Samenvatting ............................................................................................................................ 11 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 13 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 14 Chapter I. Scientific philosophical background and problem formulation .............................. 21 1. Ontology and epistemology: the nature of reality and our knowledge ......................... 21 1.1. Epistemology – the nature of truth ......................................................................... 22 1.2. Deduction and the problem of induction ............................................................... 23 1.3. Structural components of a theory ......................................................................... 30 1.4. Causation and explanation ..................................................................................... 31 1.5. The object of study and prediction ......................................................................... 34 1.6. Substantive assumptions with regard to crime and criminology ........................... 35 2. Problem formulation ..................................................................................................... 38 3. Goals of the study and their relevance .......................................................................... 40 3.1. Theoretical goals: integration and unification ....................................................... 40 3.2. Practical goal: implications for practice................................................................. 42 3.3. Criminological relevance ....................................................................................... 42 4. Design and Methodology in a nutshell .......................................................................... 44 5. Concepts and quarrels over words: practical agreement on terms used in the study .... 45 6. To conclude ................................................................................................................... 48 Chapter II. The dark side of human sociality: towards an evolutionary theory on prejudice .. 50 1. Nuts and bolts of evolutionary theory ........................................................................... 52 2. Human sociality ............................................................................................................. 56 2.1. “Classical” explanations of human sociality .......................................................... 57 2.2. Parochial altruism and coalitional computation ..................................................... 60 2.3. Intermediary conclusion ......................................................................................... 64 3. Co-evolution of social exclusion and hostility .............................................................. 65 3.1. Punishment of bad reciprocators ............................................................................ 65 3.2. Dynamics in punishment ........................................................................................ 68 3.3. The import of coalitional psychology on punishment ........................................... 70 4. Reputation and costly signaling .................................................................................... 71 4.1. Genuine signaling of pro-sociality ......................................................................... 72 3 4.2. Deceptive signaling of pro-sociality ...................................................................... 73 4.3. Intermediary conclusion: leaders and followers .................................................... 75 5. Auxiliary mechanisms ................................................................................................... 75 5.1. Transmission mechanisms ..................................................................................... 76 5.2. Emotions as proximal stimuli ................................................................................ 79 6. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 80 Chapter III. Contemporary social psychological explanations of prejudice and bias motivated behaviors .................................................................................................................................. 84 1. A little bit of history ...................................................................................................... 85 2. Social-psychological theories on prejudice ................................................................... 87 2.1. Dual process model ................................................................................................ 88 2.1.1. Right Wing Authoritarianism .................................................................................... 88 2.1.2. RWA and the evolutionary framework ..................................................................... 90 2.1.3. Social dominance orientation .................................................................................... 91 2.1.4. SDO and the evolutionary framework ....................................................................... 93 2.1.5. Differential effects according to the out-group ......................................................... 94 2.2. Integrated threat theory .......................................................................................... 95 2.2.1. Realistic threat ........................................................................................................... 96 2.2.2. Symbolic threat .......................................................................................................... 96 2.2.3. Intergroup anxiety and negative stereotypes ............................................................. 97 2.2.4. Threats related to group esteem ................................................................................. 98 2.2.5. Integrated threat theory and the evolutionary framework ......................................... 98 3. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 99 Chapter IV. Towards a testable model ................................................................................... 102 1. Selection of variables of the model ............................................................................. 102 2. Deducibility relationships ........................................................................................... 104 3. Hypotheses and their rationale .................................................................................... 106 4. Conclusion: two stages to bias motivated aggression ................................................. 113 Chapter V. Methodology: truncus communis ........................................................................ 117 1. General design: multi-site survey research ................................................................. 118 2. Sampling ...................................................................................................................... 119 3. Online distribution of questionnaire ............................................................................ 121 4. Hypothetico-deductive testing in practice ................................................................... 122 5. Implementation: a latent variable approach ................................................................ 125 5.1. Parceling of indicators ......................................................................................... 125 4 5.2. Confirmatory Factor Analyses ............................................................................. 126 5.3. Structural equation models .................................................................................. 127 5.4. Assessment of model fit ....................................................................................... 128 6. Falsification put to practice ......................................................................................... 129 7. Cross-national validation ............................................................................................. 131 8. Sex-specific analyses ................................................................................................... 133 9. Group comparisons in practice: invariance ................................................................. 133 10. Exploratory survey: pretesting the idea behind the study ........................................ 135 10.1. Construction of signaling scales .........................................................................