Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

by Robert M. Sapolsky

  12.C. Batson et al., Religion and the Individual: A Social-Psychological Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993); D. Malhotra, “(When) Are Religious People Nicer? Religious Salience and the ‘Sunday Effect’ on Pro-social Behavior,” Judgment and Decision Making 5 (2010): 138.

  13.A. Norenzayan and A. Shariff, “The Origin and Evolution of Religious Prosociality,” Sci 422 (2008): 58.

  14.A. Shariff and A. Norenzayan, “God Is Watching You: Priming God Concepts Increases Prosocial Behavior in an Anonymous Economic Game,” Psych Sci 18 (2007): 803; W. Gervais, “Like a Camera in the Sky? Thinking About God Increases Public Self-Awareness and Socially Desirable Responding,” JESP 48 (2012): 298. See also: I. Pichon et al., “Nonconscious Influences of Religion on Prosociality: A Priming Study,” Eur J Soc Psych 37 (2007): 1032; M. Bateson et al., “Cues of Being Watched Enhance Cooperation in Real-World Setting,” Biol Lett 2 (2006): 412.

  15.S. Jones, “Defeating Terrorist Groups,” RAND Corporation, CT-314 (testimony presented before the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities), September 18, 2008; P. Shadbolt, “Karma Chameleons: What Happens When Buddhists Go to War,” CNN.com, April 22, 2013.

  16.J. LaBouff et al., “Differences in Attitudes Toward Outgroups in Religious and Nonreligious Contexts in a Multinational Sample: A Situational Context Priming Study,” Int J for the Psych of Religion 22 (2011): 1; B. J. Bushman et al., “When God Sanctions Killing: Effect of Scriptural Violence on Aggression,” Psych Sci 18 (2007): 204. This is the source of the figure in the text. H. Ledford, “Scriptural Violence Can Foster Aggression,” Nat 446 (2007): 114.

  17.J. Ginges et al., “Religion and Support for Suicide Attacks,” Psych Sci 20 (2009): 224.

  18.G. Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (Boston: Addison-Wesley, 1954).

  19.T. Pettigrew and L. Tropp, “A Meta-analytic Test of Intergroup Contact Theory,” JPSP 90 (2006): 751.

  20.A. Al Ramiah and M. Hewstone, “Intergroup Contact as a Tool for Reducing, Resolving, and Preventing Intergroup Conflict: Evidence, Limitations, and Potential,” Am Psychologist 68 (2013): 527; Y. Yablon and Y. Katz, “Internet-Based Group Relations: A High School Peace Education Project in Israel,” Educational Media Int 38 (2001): 175; L. Goette and S. Meier, “Can Integration Tame Conflicts?” Sci 334 (2011): 1356; M. Alexander and F. Christia, “Context Modularity of Human Altruism,” Sci 334 (2011): 1392; M. Kalman, “Israeli/Palestinian Camps Don’t Work,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 19, 2008.

  21.I. Beah, A Long Way Gone (New York: Sarah Crichton Books, 2007).

  22.R. Weierstall et al., “Relations Among Appetitive Aggression, Post-traumatic Stress and Motives for Demobilization: A Study in Former Colombian Combatants,” Conflict and Health 7 (2012): 9; N. Boothby, “What Happens When Child Soldiers Grow Up? The Mozambique Case Study,” Intervention 4 (2006): 244.

  23.J. Arthur, “Remember Nayirah, Witness for Kuwait?” New York Times, January 6, 1992; J. Macarthur, “Kuwaiti Gave Consistent Account of Atrocities; Retracted Testimony,” New York Times, January 24, 1992; “Deception on Capitol Hill” (editorial), New York Times, January 15, 1992; T. Regan, “When Contemplating War, Beware of Babies in Incubators,” Christian Science Monitor, September 6, 2002; R. Sapolsky, “‘Pseudokinship’ and Real War,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 2, 2003. For Nayirah’s actual testimony, see. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmfVs3WaE9Y.

  24.E. Queller et al., “Single-Gene Greenbeard Effects in the Social Amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum,” Sci 299 (2003): 105; M. Nowak, “Five Rules for the Evolution of Cooperation,” Sci 314 (2006): 1560.

  25.C. Camerer and E. Fehr, “When Does Economic Man Dominate Social Behavior?” Sci 311 (2006): 47; J. McNamara et al., “Variation in Behaviour Promotes Cooperation in the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game,” Nat 428 (2004): 745; C. Hauert and M. Doebeli, “Spatial Structure Often Inhibits the Evolution of Cooperation in the Snowdrift Game,” Nat 428 (2004): 643.

  26.M. Milinski et al., “Reputation Helps Solve the ‘Tragedy of the Commons,’” Nat 415 (2002): 424.

  27.M. Nowak et al., “Fairness Versus Reason in the Ultimatum Game,” Sci 289 (2000: 1773; G. Vogel, “The Evolution of the Golden Rule,” Sci 303 (2004): 1128.

  28.J. Henrich et al., “Costly Punishment Across Human Societies,” Sci 312 (2006): 1767; B. Vollan and E. Olstrom, “Cooperation and the Commons,” Sci 330 (2010): 923; D. Rustagi et al., “Conditional Cooperation and Costly Monitoring Explain Success in Forest Commons Management,” Sci 330 (2010): 961.

  29.S. Gachter et al., “The Long-Run Benefits of Punishment,” Sci 322 (2008): 1510.

  30.B. Knutson, “Sweet Revenge?” Sci 305 (2004): 1246; D. de Quervain et al., “The Neural Basis of Altruistic Punishment,” Sci 305 (2004): 1254; E. Fehr and S. Gachter, “Altruistic Punishment in Humans,” Nat 415 (2002): 137; E. Fehr and B. Rockenbach, “Detrimental Effects of Sanctions on Human Altruism,” Nat 422 (2003): 137; C. T. Dawes et al., “Egalitarian Motives in Humans,” Nat 446 (2007): 794

  31.E. Fehr and U. Fischbacher, “The Nature of Human Altruism,” Nat 425 (2003): 785; M. Janssen et al., “Lab Experiments for the Study of Social-Ecological Systems,” Sci 328 (2010): 613; R. Boyd et al., “Coordinated Punishment of Defectors Sustains Cooperation and Can Proliferate When Rare,” Sci 328 (2010): 617.

  32.J. Jordan et al., “Third-Party Punishment as a Costly Signal of Trustworthiness,” Nat 530 (2016): 473.

  33.A. Gneezy et al., “Shared Social Responsibility: A Field Experiment in Pay-What-You-Want Pricing and Charitable Giving,” Sci 329 (2010): 325; S. DellaVigna, “Consumers Who Care,” Sci 329 (2010): 287.

  34.J. McNamara et al., “The Coevolution of Choosiness and Cooperation,” Nat 451 (2008): 189.

  35.IDASA, National Elections Survey, August 1994 (Cape Town: Institute for Democracy in South Africa, 1994); Human Science Research Council, Omnibus, May 1995 (Pretoria, South Africa: HSRC/Mark Data, 1995); B. Hamber et al., “‘Telling It Like It Is . . .’: Understanding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from the Perspective of Survivors,” Psych in Soc 26 (2000): 18.

  36.D. Filkins, “Atonement: A Troubled Iraq Veteran Seeks Out the Family He Harmed,” New Yorker, October 29, 2012; D. Margolick, Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011).

  37.R. Fehr and M. Gelfand, “When Apologies Work: How Matching Apology Components to Victims’ Self-Construals Facilitates Forgiveness,” Organizational Behav and Hum Decision Processes 113 (2010): 37.

  38.M. McCullough, Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct (Hoboken, New Jersy: Jossey-Bass, 2008).

  39.M. Berman, “‘I Forgive You.’ Relatives of Charleston Church Shooting Victims Address Dylann Roof,” Washington Post, June 19, 2015.

  40.J. Thompson-Cannino et al., Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption (New York: St. Martin’s Griff, 2010).

  41.L. Toussaint et al., “Effects of Lifetime Stress Exposure on Mental and Physical Health in Young Adulthood: How Stress Degrades and Forgiveness Protects Health,” J Health Psych 21 (2014): 1004; K. A. Lawler et al., “A Change of Heart: Cardiovascular Correlates of Forgiveness in Response to Interpersonal Conflict,” J Behav Med 26 (2003): 373; M. C. Whited et al., “The Influence of Forgiveness and Apology on Cardiovascular Reactivity and Recovery in Response to Mental Stress,” J Behav Med 33 (2010): 293; C. vanOyen Witvliet et al., “Granting Forgiveness or Harboring Grudges: Implications for Emotion, Physiology, and Health,” Psych Sci 12 (2001): 117; P. A. Hannon et al., “The Soothing Effects of Forgiveness on Victims’ and Perpetrators’ Blood Pressure,” Personal Relationships 19 (2011): 27; G. L. Reed and R. D. Enright, “The Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Depression, Anxiety, and Posttraumatic Stress for Women After Spousal Emotional Abuse,” J Consulting Clin Psych 74 (2006): 920.
r />   42.D. Kahneman and J. Renshon, “Why Hawks Win,” Foreign Policy, January/February 2007.

  43.D. Laitin, “Confronting Violence Face to Face,” Sci 320 (2008): 51.

  44.D. Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Costs of Learning to Kill in War and Society (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995).

  45.M. Power, “Confessions of a Drone Warrior,” GQ, October 22, 2013; J. L. Otto and B. J. Webber, “Mental Health Diagnoses and Counseling Among Pilots of Remotely Piloted Aircraft in the United States Air Force,” MSMR 20 (2013): 3; J. Dao, “Drone Pilots Are Found to Get Stress Disorders Much as Those in Combat Do,” New York Times, February 22, 2013.

  46.J. Altmann et al., “Body Size and Fatness of Free-Living Baboons Reflect Food availability and Activity Level,” Am J Primat 30 (1993): 149; J. Kemnitz et al., “Effects of Food Availability on Insulin and Lipid Levels in Free-Ranging Baboons,” Am J Primat 57 (2002): 13; W. Banks et al., “Serum Leptin Levels as a Marker for a Syndrome X-Like Condition in Wild Baboons,” J Clin Endo and Metabolism 88 (2003): 1234.

  47.R. Tarara et al., “Tuberculosis in Wild Baboon (Papio cynocephalus) in Kenya,” J Wildlife Diseases 21 (1985): 137; R. Sapolsky and J. Else, “Bovine Tuberculosis in a Wild Baboon Population: Epidemiological Aspects,” J Med Primat 16 (1987): 229.

  48.R. Sapolsky and L. Share, “A Pacific Culture Among Wild Baboons, Its Emergence and Transmission,” PLoS Biol 2 (2004): E106; R. Sapolsky, “Culture in Animals, and a Case of a Non-human Primate Culture of Low Aggression and High Affiliation,” Soc Forces 85 (2006): 217; R. Sapolsky, “Social Cultures in Non-human Primates,” Curr Anthropology 47 (2006): 641; R. Sapolsky, “A Natural History of Peace,” Foreign Affairs 85 (2006): 104.

  49.I. DeVore, Primate Behavior: Field Studies of Monkeys and Apes (New York: Holt, 1965).

  50.A. McAvoy, “Pearl Harbor Vets Reconcile in Hawaii,” Associated Press, December 6, 2006; R. Ohira, “Zenji Abe, the Enemy Who Became a Friend,” Honolulu Advertiser, April 12, 2007.

  51.N. Rhee, “Why US Veterans Are Returning to Vietnam,” Christian Science Monitor, November 10, 2013.

  52.K. Sim and M. Bilton, Remember My Lai, (PBS Video, 1989); G. Eckhardt, My Lai: An American Tragedy (Kansas City: University of Missouri—Kansas City Law Review, Summer 2000); M. Bilton and K. Sim, Four Hours in My Lai (New York: Penguin, 1993); this is the source of the Varnado Simpson quote; T. Angers, The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story (Lafayette, LA: Acadian House, 1999); this is the source of the Hugh Thompson quote.

  53.Footnote: M. Bilton and K. Sim, Four Hours in My Lai (NY: Penguin, 1993).

  54.A. Hochschild, Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery (Basingstoke, UK: Pan Macmillan, 2005); E. Metaxas, Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery (New York: HarperOne, 2007).

  55.G. Bell, Rough Notes by an Old Soldier: During Fifty Years’ Service, from Ensign G. B. to Major-General C. B. (London: Day, 1867).

  56.M. Seidman, “Quiet Fronts in the Spanish Civil War,” libcom.org, Summer 1999; F. Robinson, Diary of the Crimean War (1856); E. Costello, The Adventures of a Soldier (1841); BiblioLife, 2013; J. Persico My Enemy, My Brother: Men and Days of Gettysburg (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1996).

  57.S. Weintraub, Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce (New York: Plume Press, 2002).

  58.T. Ashworth, Trench Warfare, 1914–1918: The Live and Let Live System (London: Pan Books, 1980). Live and Let Live is also analyzed in R. Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation (New York: Basic Books, 2006).

  59.E. Jones, “One War Is Enough,” Atlantic, February 1946.

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  Index

  The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. The link provided will take you to the beginning of that print page. You may need to scroll forward from that location to find the corresponding reference on your e-reader. Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.

  abortion, 190–91, 592

  Abe, Zenji, 654–55, 655, 660, 668, 670

  Abu Ghraib Prison, 464, 469, 652

  ACC, see anterior cingulate cortex

  acetylcholine, 27, 692, 694

  ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone), 125, 708–9

  ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), 76

  Adler, Nancy, 293–94

  adolescence, 59, 154–73

  criminal justice system and, 170–71, 589–90, 592–93

  culture and, 155–56

  dopamine reward system and, 162–64, 163

  empathy, sympathy, and moral reasoning in, 167–69, 543

  frontal cortical maturation in, 154–60, 171–73, 589–90, 592–93

  legal adulthood and, 155n

  novelty craving in, 161–62, 168

  peers, social acceptance, and social exclusion in, 164–67

  puberty in, 158–59

  risk taking in, 160–64

  violence in, 170–71

  Adorno, Theodor, 202, 401, 446

  adrenal gland, 27

  adrenaline, 27

  adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), 125, 708–9

  affiliation, 3

  African Americans, 407n, 408n, 582, 627, 640

  doll studies and, 415

  prejudice and stereotypes and, 89, 417

  aggression, 2, 3, 11, 15, 16, 19, 43

  air rage, 295–96

  alcohol and, 134, 136

  amygdala and, 31–34, 44

  papers publis
hed on, 605

  context of, 19

  ecological duress and, 303

  displacement, 17, 132

  fear and, 44

  in females, 117–24, 135–36

  maternal, 118–19, 121

  pain and, 91

  religion and, 624–26, 625

  ritualistic, 17

  serotonin and, 76–77, 250–55

  stress and, 131–32

  testosterone and, 100–102, 107, 115, 135, 215, 216, 218–20, 259–60

  papers published on, 605

  types of, 16–17

  vasopressin and, 116

  see also violence

  agriculture, 317–18, 326

  rice, 278–79, 278, 281

  Ahern, Bertie, 577n–78n

  air rage, 295–96

  AIS (androgen insensitivity syndrome), 216–17

  Akil, Huda, 71

  Alberts, Susan, 437

  albinos, 370n, 616

  alcohol, 196, 249

  aggression and, 134, 136

  aliens, space, 398, 401n

  Allen, Robert, 554

  Allman, John, 46, 506–8

  allomothering, 337

  Allport, Gordon, 420

  Altmann, Jeanne, 437

  Altman, Joseph, 147, 149, 150

  altruism, 3, 15, 16, 18, 339, 342, 364, 487, 546–47, 551, 565

  pathological, 18, 39, 545–46

  reciprocal, 324, 342–54, 372–73, 499, 547

  indirect, 324

  in single-cell amoeba, 344n

  self-interest in, 547–51

  Always Cooperate/Defect, 350, 351, 353, 363

  Alzheimer’s, 53n

  Amazonians, 310, 310

  ambiguity, 450

  American Psychological Association (APA), 592