Are we becoming more peaceful as we become smarter?

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by Bells, Oct 23, 2011.

  1. Bells Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,270
    According to Steven Pinker, the answer is yes.

    In his article titled "Taming the devil within us", Pinker suggests that human's increasing ability to reason and intelligence coincides with a decline in violence.


    "We are prone to think that modern life is more violent because historical records from recent eras are more complete, and because the human mind overestimates the frequency of vivid, memorable events. We also care more about violence today. Ancient histories are filled with glorious conquests that today would be classified as genocide, 312and the leaders known to history as So-and-So the Great would today be prosecuted as war criminals.

    Attempts to quantify the death tolls from earlier centuries suggest that many of the collapsing empires, conquering maniacs, horse-tribe invasions, slave trades and annihilations of native peoples had individual death tolls that, adjusted for population, are comparable to those of each of the two world wars. War before civilization was even bloodier. Forensic archaeology and ethnographic demography suggest that around 15% of people living in non-state societies died violently — five times the proportion of violent deaths in the twentieth century from war, genocide and man-made famines combined."


    He also points out that war, and the fact that we now try to avoid global wars at all costs, as though to say that we are now more inclined to push diplomacy instead of heading straight into a global war scenario. To counter that, one could say that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan could be seen as not being global, but the countries involved in the conflicts are from around the world, so while we are not fighting across continents, war itself has changed from what it was in the last century and the time before that as well, where wars were waged on a global scale.

    However he also goes on to suggest that it is not just the lack of war, but also the fact that we are now more aware of human rights and no longer partake in violent scenarios, from religious sacrifices to the fact that the death penalty has been banned in so many countries shows a decline in violence, to the fact that murder rates are today much lower than they were a few hundred years ago. But violence is a part of our make-up. There hasn't been a change to how we are wired.


    The human brain has conserved mammalian circuits for rage and dominance, and boys universally play-fight. A majority of adults have homicidal fantasies and enjoy violent entertainment, and variation in violent tendencies across individuals is substantially heritable. At the same time, not a single category of violence has stayed at a fixed level over the course of history. Whatever causes violence, it is not a perennial urge like hunger, sex or sleep.


    So why the decline? Pinker suggests that our increased reasoning is a prime contender. And yes, it is because we are now more intelligent, and thus, are more aware, more educated and have a greater ability to reason.


    An average teenager today, if he or she could time-travel back to 1910, would have had an IQ of 130, and a typical person of 1910, if time-transported forward to the present, would have a mean IQ of 70.

    The increase is not in general intelligence, the heritable factor underlying all the components of intelligence (such as vocabulary, arithmetic and knowledge). It is concentrated in abstract reasoning, such as noting similarities (“What do a pound and an inch have in common?”) and analogies (“BIRD is to EGG as TREE is to what?”). The most likely causes are increases in the duration and quality of schooling, the spread of symbol-manipulation into work and leisure, and the trickling down of scientific and analytical reasoning into everyday life.

    Is there any evidence that enhancements in thinking can make us less violent? Cognitive neuroscience suggests that morality is driven not just by the limbic circuits underlying emotion but also by parts of the prefrontal cortex that underlie abstract thought. And the historical record shows that many humane advances were initiated in the realm of ideas. Philosophers prepared careful briefs against slavery, despotism, torture, religious persecution, cruelty to animals, harshness to children, violence against women and frivolous wars. These arguments were disseminated in pamphlets and bestsellers and debated in salons and pubs, and then in conventions and legislatures that implemented reforms.

    There are also more direct links between reason and peace. On average, and holding all else constant, people with greater reasoning abilities commit fewer violent crimes, are more likely to cooperate in experimental games, and have more classically liberal attitudes, such as opposition to racism and sexism. And on average, holding all else constant, societies with higher levels of educational and intellectual achievement are more receptive to democracy, and have lower rates of civil war.


    Is he correct? Are we less violent today? Can this change in the near future, since levels of violence fluctuates throughout history and will, most probably in the future?
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,828
    Culture clash seems to be the biggest block. Does "reason" have the same face around the world?
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. Me-Ki-Gal Banned Banned

    Messages:
    4,634
    Yes . We don't Nail butt loads of people on crosses any more . Shackles ? You know what those are and if you do I would bet it is not a first hand account , unless your into that kind of stuff .
    We don't hang people in the woods on a tree so much any more , or to say a lot less of us do that and the ones that do typically get caught and punished .
    Witches , we don't burn em any more
    Holy Vehm , Was that a practice were you could kill some one , or it was your duty if you think they committed a crime. Like legalized vigilantism.

    You see even in the early 1900s we still hanged people in the States .
    So yeah , considering the average person don't get stoned anymore
    Well Just cause some people get stoned don't mean a thing .
    Spidey our Jewish American Atheist he gets stoned a lot. I don't think it is a Jewish thing and yet you ever read the bible ? I think it is an American thing , Although that expert from Sacramento is heading to Jerusalem to work with some Jewish Scholars on weed testing. Marijuana Experts . That shit makes people more peaceful . If you want to be mean Drink and fight


    I think Fraggle might say it was coffee that changed everything in this matter . Were as civilization was a bunch of beer drinkers and it lowered the intelligence of the populace as a whole . Then along came coffee and everybody went on the wagon ( Stopped drinking beer ) . This not only cleared there minds of drunken delusions , but made people more alert and ready to observe. I think he thinks you can track jumps in academic achievement based on these time spans . It would be interesting to see if it truly holds up to scrutiny

    The question for me is if weed is part of the cause for the drop in violence ?
    Will it make people more stupid in the end because of the complacent mood it puts people in ?
    Will they once they are good and stupid start drinking more and start a spiral down in to real stupid-ville. Drunk and stoned like a Friday night in America, Were as every night is Friday night with out you
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2011
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,828
    You're speaking of the Western world, of course. Our culture is very different from others.
     
  8. DNA100 Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    259
    I don't think we are becoming more peaceful.
    We are becoming somewhat more controlled and monitored.
    So small scale violences have reduced a bit, I guess. But thanks to technology, the large scale violences are more fierce than ever.

    Just look at all those wars (created mainly by USA).
     
  9. Wexler Gadfly Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    115
    Yes, he is correct. I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture of his two weeks ago in which he goes into greater depth on the data to support his claims.

    You are missing a key piece to why this is occuring...something that we all can relate to as I type this - the ability to exchange ideas, and empathy. Literature (information, fiction, non-fiction) on through to this message board is an integral part of our peaceful evolution.
     
  10. nietzschefan Thread Killer Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    7,721
    I think it is very dangerous thinking, to assume we are smarter. More educated perhaps and more aware and more in control of our instincts. But the animal within is only a few drinks away at a bar with someone giving you the evil eye...a brick through a window after a hockey game or a shot fired in anger toward a corrupt government.
     
  11. murdoch Simply Psychic! Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    68
    To me it relates more with civilized society. Today we are getting more and more civilized with increasing stress/pressure over it by the society and legal system. And of coarse it can be the of shoot of it becoming more knowledgeable and reasonable.
     
  12. medevilgirl Registered Member

    Messages:
    1
    More educated perhaps and more aware and more in control of our instincts. But the animal within is only a few drinks away at a bar with someone giving you the evil eye...a brick through a window after a hockey game or a shot fired in anger toward a corrupt government.
     
  13. chimpkin C'mon, get happy! Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,416

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Smarter may be part of it, but it may also be a consequence of not being actively starving to death:
    http://www.ditext.com/diamond/10.html
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2011
  14. Enmos Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    43,184
    We are smarter? We are more peaceful? Evidence? I don't see it..
     
  15. Wexler Gadfly Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    115
  16. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    33,264
    The majority of crimes are committed by fewer than 2 percent of the population in developed countries for if those other 98 percent were ever to start a vigilante type of mentality there would be even fewer of those 2 percents doing the crimes. Statistics can be and are manipulated by whoever is doing the research about whatever they are trying to find out therefore any types of statistics cannot be trusted.
     
  17. Anti-Flag Pun intended Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,714
    I was about to post the same thing. Who says we're smarter?

    I'd also question if being "more peaceful" might have something to do with the ability to destroy the world 40,000 times over.
    Never bring a knife to a gun fight as they say....
     
  18. Wexler Gadfly Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    115
    Think about the recent major regime changes that have occurred without "war" or mass casualties. There was always the "potential" for mass violence, but for "some reason" there wasn't.

    That is perfect evidence. It has nothing to do with nuclear weapons.

    Also, what is often confused is how Pinker is framing the data - it's relevant to the % of population that experiences violence.

    In no way does he undermine the current day atrocities, but as a % of the population, less people on the planet are prone to those atrocities due to a number of factors, general intelligence being one of many.
     
  19. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    22,087
    As we get smarter, the excuses only get better. Also the justifications. Choose which. Enjoy.
     
  20. Anti-Flag Pun intended Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,714
    I was thinking the same thing. I don't know anyone that hasn't "experienced violence" in some form. Perhaps someone can define the parameters better and the testing methods, particularly the comparisons with the past and its apparent data. :shrug:
     
  21. Dr Mabuse Percipient Thaumaturgist Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    714
    The world is not less violent. Mankind has not changed.

    There is nothing new under the sun... including engaging in naive rationalizing to form a desired idealistic worldview.
     
  22. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    Someone hasn't been doing his homework. As I just noted on another thread in this same subforum, using modern instruments to examine the many remains of Paleolithic people, anthropologists have discovered that at the end of the Early Stone Age (when population pressure began to be felt, but before the Agricultural Revolution created the first food surplus on this planet), more humans were killed by violence than by all other causes of death combined. The reason of course was that with no food surplus, during a lean year their very survival depended on attacking the tribe in the next valley and stealing their food,

    There has never been a period in history since the dawn of the Neolithic Era when so many humans were killed by other humans. The high water mark may have been Genghis Khan, still who only killed ten percent of the people his armies could reach. World War II, whose armies could reach everyone on earth, only killed three percent of us.

    Today violence at the hands of other humans--whether by warriors, despotic governments, religious zealots or street gangs--is not one of the leading causes of death. And it has not been for a very long time.
     
  23. Ripley Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,411
    Steven Pinker no doubt is a comfortable and leisurely upper middle class professional attempting to stuff and overstuff an entire species—well, the comfortable and leisurely classes who matter at any rate—into the vainglorified sock of his theory.
     

Share This Page