The impact of yesterday’s territorial shortages on today’s adapted mind

Powers, Matthew Aderhold

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/102818 Copy

Description

Title

The impact of yesterday’s territorial shortages on today’s adapted mind

Author(s)

Powers, Matthew Aderhold

Issue Date

2018-12-02

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Vasquez, John

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Vasquez, John

Committee Member(s)

• Diehl, Paul
• Mondak, Jeffery
• Kuklinski, James

Department of Study

Political Science

Discipline

Political Science

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Human Territoriality, Aggression, Evolutionary Psychology

Abstract

My dissertation adopts an evolutionary psychological perspective to argue that, given the relative dearth of territory that punctuated much of human evolutionary history, homo sapiens are endowed with an evolved psychological mechanism (EPM) to view threats concerning territory as especially salient and worthy of aggressive retorts. I go on to contend that variation in individuals’ ontogenetic contexts—such as sex differences between males and females—and immediate situational inputs—such as numerical superiority concerns or personal assessments of physical strength—can in some instances moderate and in other instances exacerbate the influence of this territorial EPM on conspecific aggressive behavior. My empirical tests show that while individuals do indeed demonstrate greater levels of both interpersonal and foreign policy aggression following territorial threats than non-territorial threats, the aforementioned role of one’s ontogenetic contexts and immediate situational inputs are also significant. For example, in regards to ontogenetic context, while males demonstrate greater aggression than females during offensive territorial encounters, this sex-based difference disappears during defensive territorial threats. Further, one’s immediate situational input also matters in the sense that aggression levels vary depending on whether the territorial resource under dispute was evolutionary essential for survive (e.g., water) or only gained importance relatively late in human evolution (e.g., gold). Overall, my results demonstrate that many outgrowths of territorial political violence in today’s world can often be understood via an evolutionary psychological rationale.

Graduation Semester

2018-12

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/102818

Copyright and License Information

© 2018 by Matthew A. Powers. All rights reserved.

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