The DOI matches its Crossref record; 160 of the 162 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Two types of aggression in human evolution.
Open accessAbstract
Two major types of aggression, proactive and reactive, are associated with contrasting expression, eliciting factors, neural pathways, development, and function. The distinction is useful for understanding the nature and evolution of human aggression. Compared with many primates, humans have a high propensity for proactive aggression, a trait shared with chimpanzees but not bonobos. By contrast, humans have a low propensity for reactive aggression compared with chimpanzees, and in this respect humans are more bonobo-like. The bimodal classification of human aggression helps solve two important puzzles. First, a long-standing debate about the significance of aggression in human nature is misconceived, because both positions are partly correct. The Hobbes-Huxley position rightly recognizes the high potential for proactive violence, while the Rousseau-Kropotkin position correctly notes the low frequency of reactive aggression. Second, the occurrence of two major types of human aggression solves the execution paradox, concerned with the hypothesized effects of capital punishment on self-domestication in the Pleistocene. The puzzle is that the propensity for aggressive behavior was supposedly reduced as a result of being selected against by capital punishment, but capital punishment is itself an aggressive behavior. Since the aggression used by executioners is proactive, the execution paradox is solved to the extent that the aggressive behavior of which victims were accused was frequently reactive, as has been reported. Both types of killing are important in humans, although proactive killing appears to be typically more frequent in war. The biology of proactive aggression is less well known and merits increased attention.
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In the citing paper
“Human aggressiveness has recently been argued to come in two major forms, reactive (or impulsive) and proactive (or premeditated), each with their own distinctive neurobiology (Wrangham, 2018).”
From Hypotheses for the Evolution of Reduced Reactive Aggression in the Context of Human Self-Domestication (2019) · cites this paper as Wrangham, 2018
In the citing paper
“The high degree of docility that is characteristic of humans and domesticated animals depends on a low propensity for reactive aggression, but what relationship it has with proactive aggression, if any, is unknown (Wrangham, 2018).”
From Hypotheses for the Evolution of Reduced Reactive Aggression in the Context of Human Self-Domestication (2019) · cites this paper as Wrangham, 2018
In the citing paper
“The fact that proactive and reactive aggression involve different neurobiological mechanisms means that under a selective regime of alpha males being executed, the propensity for proactive reaction can remain high while the propensity for reactive aggression declines over evolutionary time (Wrangham, 2018).”
From Hypotheses for the Evolution of Reduced Reactive Aggression in the Context of Human Self-Domestication (2019) · cites this paper as Wrangham, 2018
In the citing paper
“These findings are consistent with the view that prosocial selective pressures have led to a reduction in reactive over and above proactive aggression in recent human evolution (Wrangham, 2018).”
From Glutamate receptors in domestication and modern human evolution (2020) · cites this paper as Wrangham, 2018
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Cites
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Cited by
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Neural mechanisms of aggression across species
Lischinsky, J. E., & Lin, D. (2020) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41593-020-00715-2 · Cited by 276
Marsh, A. A. (2018) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-103010 · Cited by 171
Within-group synchronization in the prefrontal cortex associates with intergroup conflict
Yang, J., Zhang, H., Ni, J., De Dreu, C. K. W., & Ma, Y. (2020) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41593-020-0630-x · Cited by 161
Kolla, N. J., & Bortolato, M. (2020) · Progress in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/j.pneurobio.2020.101875 · Cited by 138
Clark, C. J., & Winegard, B. M. (2020) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1080/1047840x.2020.1721233 · Cited by 128
Metadata
- Authors
- Wrangham, R. W.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wrangham, Richard W.
- ORCID
- Wrangham, Richard W.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2017-12-26
- Volume
- 115
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 245-253
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC5777045
- OpenAlex
- W2775958664
- Cited by
- 410
- References
- 162
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 92 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 61 · 2020: 66 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 12
- FWCI
- 38.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Violence, Religion, and Philosophy
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Keywords
- proactive aggression, reactive aggression, human evolution, aggression, chimpanzees, bonobos, death penalty, self-domestication, war, killing, primate aggression
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Physiological, Aggression, Competitive Behavior, Biological Evolution, Female, Humans, Male, Neural Pathways, Reward, Social Behavior, Violence
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