Research Article
Péter Farsang & Ferenc Kocsor
Human Ethology Bulletin, Volume 31, No 2, 17-29, published June 30, 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22330/heb/312/017-029
ABSTRACT
Conspecific aggression is the result of competition for scarce resources. This holds for humans as well: competitiveness, risk taking and violence are primarily the result of reproductive competition between men. The occurrence of these behaviors in the population most intensely straining after success is referred to as the Young Male Syndrome (YMS). The observation that in homicide almost identical victim and offender populations are involved, with unemployed, unmarried young men greatly overrepresented, led to the inference that many, perhaps most, homicides are status competitions typically evolving from a “trivial altercation”. In this paper Hungarian and Australian homicide data are tested and discussed in the light of the YMS and former data. Both Hungarian and Australian data correspond only partially with former findings. As expected, males are overrepresented amongst both victim and offender population and offenders are young. However, male victims in both countries are significantly older than male offenders. Hungarian male victims are even older than the average male population in the country. Consequently, the universality of the correspondence between the age of victims and offenders of homicide has not been corroborated. This does not narrow the validity of the evolutionary explanations of risk taking behavior and aggressive acts in general. However, though evolved psychological mechanisms may influence the willingness to solve conflicts and proceed in the dominance hierarchy by means of antagonistic acts, and even murder, social factors are likely to contribute more to the cross-cultural differences in age distribution of homicide victims.
Keywords: Aggression, risk taking, cultural differences.
ISSN: 2224-4476
