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Men may wage wars in part to spread their seed. In a recent report in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Chinese researchers argue that alongside revenge and resource acquisition, mating is a key motivator for taking up arms. Exposing heterosexual men to images of attractive women increased their professed support for international aggression. Pictures of flags did not have the same effect, and men did not associate attractive women with aggression against males in general or with peaceful resolution to trade conflicts.
An evolved war-mating association makes sense: the authors’ analysis of 20th-century records suggests warriors gain an estimated 10 times as many sexual opportunities as civilians, whether through raping the enemy or showing off their battle scars.
This article was originally published with the title Seeds of Destruction.
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Add CommentThe hypothesis asserted in the original article may have had validity through recorded time until the last 50 years as Darwinian evolutionary forces may have been predominant. However, two scientific articles now indicate that the same hypothesis is no longer predominant in Western Culture. The Scientific articles are:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. " A Population Level-Decline in Serum Testosterone Levels in American Men" by T. Araujo Travison et al. in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 92(1):196-202; 2. "The Sperm Count has been decreasing steadily for many years in Western industrialized countries: Is there an endocrine basis for this decrease?" Dindyal S. (2007)Journal of Urology 2(1): 1-21.
These are articles are an example of many documenting an endocrinological (or hormone) decline in the general male population in Western industrialized nations. Recent analysis shows average testosterone levels receding in men of all ages. In addition, average sperm quality, quantity and even testicle size has seen a marked reduction. Sperm count in healthy men appeared to have dropped by more than half in the last 50 years. From the sperm count article: "The worrying thing about this downward trend is that a sperm count less than 20 million sperms per ml is interpreted as being infertile, if this downward trend of counts were to continue then values less than this will be the average in the next millennium."
Although the aforementioned articles do not assert any particular cause for this decline in male fertility in Western Nations, the same indicates that Darwinian forces related to War and Conflict have not been present as motivators for War and Conflict in the West for men for at least the last 50 years.
A former fighter in the spanish civil war reportedly told one of his sons: "You have no idea about how many girlfriends you gain while in the rearguard"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAmerican men are the most desired sex objects in the world, as the US has been almost continiously at war for 70 years. The men of Europe and Latin America must be insanely jealous. I've always wondered why women went apparently crazy for me since I did my bit to murder millions of Vietnamese.
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