HYDERABAD: Human beings, we believe, are naturally competitive species. Who we think we are, matters to us and partially determines our behaviours in society. But this recent view, that humans are innately aggressive might be only partially correct. We, as humans, are more often at peace than at war, says Augustin Fuentes, an American anthropologist and primatologist, in his blog.
We cooperate more than we conflict, he says, in fact, cooperation may be a central facet in explaining our success of survival as a species. While our core adaptation may be that of peace, cooperation and cohabitation, we are also an egalitarian but occasionally violent lot. In our quest for completion, competition, victory, or mastery over each other, we often turn to aggression and violence as means of expression.
Aggression in humans varies between verbal, psychological, physical, and sexual. It can be a mild expression of anger coma or can be a severe vicious need to take another’s life or to subjugate violently. Expressions of anger — aggression vary across individuals, races, genders, societies, communities, and age groups and may depend on many social and cultural factors and can be an innate part of being human.Research says that humans and apes have evolved over time to be dominating and competitive, where violence and expressions of violence have been used to dominate, subjugate and declare supremacy war, shoot outs and rape are some such examples.
Research also says that we as humans possess the innate quality of empathy and compassion and that violence was not a central part of our evolution. Joanna Bryner says that humans crave violence just like they crave food and sex. She says that this may explain why people indulge in brutal sports, brawls and sweet fights.
There are many areas of the brain that equate reward and violence. Violence also has hormonal and other pathophysiological explanations and some people are more violent in their expressions than others. In some societies, being peaceful and avoiding conflict is considered a weakness or a flaw in character. Are we, then, like the aggressive Morloks and the peace-loving Eloi as described in HG Well’s novel Time Machine? Certainly food for thought.
Are you an aggressive person? How does one deal with aggression?
— The author is a consultant psychiatrist at Dhrithi Wellness Clinic, Hyderabad