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Cruelty's utility: The evolution of same-species killing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2006

Malcolm Potts
Malcolm Potts*
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 92704
*
pottsmalcolm@yahoo.com
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Abstract:

Human beings, like chimpanzees, deliberately kill their own species in order to expand their territory. For a self-aware social animal to attack its own kind, it would need to evolve a mechanism to dehumanize, or dechimpanzee-ize those it attacks. It is suggested that cruelty reflects such an evolved predisposition. The implications for violence prevention are discussed.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , June 2006 , pp. 238
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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