We're all able to kill, says prof Humans are programmed to kill and anyone could commit murder in the right circumstances, a scientist claims. Professor David Buss, an academic at the University of Texas, argues in a new book that killing is part of human nature. Murder could be traced back to the "ruthless evolutionary drive to reproduce", he said. Prof Buss, an evolutionary psychologist, told the Times Higher Education Supplement: "I believe we all have the capability to commit murder." His book, The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind is Designed to Kill, argues that 91% of men and 84% of women have had fantasies about killing someone. It rejects the conventional view that people were driven to kill by influences such as child abuse, images in the media or culture. Thousands of years ago killing an enemy would boost a man's social status and improve his chances of attracting a mate, the book argues. Murderers' genes won the evolutionary battle over those of their victims and the instinct to kill now lies dormant in all of us, according to Prof Buss. The book draws on a study of 375 murder cases, including interviews with convicted killers. Find this story at http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/PA_NEWA3889621115819321A0?version=1 ©2005 Associated New Media
I guess I'm in the 16%, then.... even at best, these impulses are thoughtless and self-centered. Surely everyone is not that bad. I do believe human nature can be very dark and we're all capable of things we wouldn't think we would be, but I should hope it wouldn't go that far... I can't imagine being responsible for destroying someone.
I can't either. I think it's why violent media has been popular throughout the ages. It feeds that desire that we rightly suppress and it allows the working class to live on their taxing lives.
I wouldn't blink an eye to break out the Bushmaster if it meant home protection for myself and my family....
Evolutionary psychology could be a great boon to society - once we understand (or "if" we understand) the degree to which our emotional states and/or actions are biologically determined. It can be a bit frightening to realize the extent to which we are nothing more than soft robots built by accident for the sole purpose of humping and transporting genes into the future.
And this surprises everyone? I thought this was already expressed like in Darwin's survival of the fittest. The guy just said that given the right circumstances all humans have the capability to kill. How is that surprising or new? Someone breaks into your home, attacks your family. I got a gun, BANG that b**** is dead. Im sure that he did not mean that we murder for our own pleasure. Just that if its the right circumstances, we will kill (for survival or other reasons). Not that I would even like to kill someone for any reason. But hey if it comes down to me or him, that guys got to go.
I could kill in self defense. I'm no goat. But it would take a lot for me to kill someone. I would prefer not to kill for food, but again, if it was self preseveration, I could kill. As for eating another human to survive, I would not kill them, but I would eat them if they were already dead. As for being eaten, I think if a great white got me that would be pretty good way to go, but I'm not big on being eaten by an alien or by some kind of snake or something.
Heh.. I took Psych of Human Mating with him. That article sounds pretty consistent with what he teaches in class.
I'm a lethal weapon. There is no doubt. It is remarkable that I am even allowed out in public unchained. I'm a lean mean killing machine. I am as dangerous as they come. Watch out!
I don't think this is really that surprising and as others have noted fits in with the idea of survival of the fittest. If that means killing others in competition for food, shelter and mates or killing to defend yourself and your offspring to guarentee continuation of your genes. What would be more interesting is where do people draw the limits to killing each other and how much potential is there within most humans to kill over things not related to basic survival. I remember reading something about Bosnia that one of the things that was so shocking about it was that the Bosnians were generally well educated and had lived peacefully for years in a multi-ethnic modern and even by Western European standards modestly affluent society so it was quite a shock when they started butchering each other over ancient ethnic hatreds.
