Are we all capable of violence?

[steven johnson]

Torture at Guantanomo, Muslim suicide bombers and Nazi genocide are behaviors we like to feel reflect evil people and ideologies. Unfortunately, science suggests that human nature can turn ugly, even among nice Democrats.

Is it possible that you, or your mother or daughter or son, could ever be driven to commit a dreadful crime? Do we have that level of violence in ourselves?
The answer is yes.
Contrary to popular belief, we are born violent. Until the age of three, our impulses run riot. There is no stopping the urges which come from the emotional centre in our brains.
But as we grow up, we start to develop the part of the brain that allows us to control our aggression - the pre-frontal cortex. Yet crucially, how well this control mechanism works depends on our experiences.

The way people with no history of violence committed atrocities during World War II has provoked much discussion.

It's hard to accept that we're born violent, that we enjoy it, and that all our control mechanisms can easily be broken.

Are we all capable of violence?

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Nice to see research into what I know is the case

:-)

And I am not delusional, I know

[xchrom]

2. recommend -- you never know what a day will bring. nt

[rwheeler31]

3. Sad, choose other writings.

[LuvNewcastle]

4. What I find interesting is how

people who might not individually commit violent crimes become excessively violent in groups. Violence is not seen as serious when committed by gangs or armies.

[rwheeler31]

5. What do you consider violent? Is someone resisting arrests

in that catagory?

[Mythsaje]

6. Yup.

Seems pretty obvious to me.

[lurky]

7. The military is made up mostly of normal people

who are conditioned to kill people in horrific ways without even blinking. I don't know why the rest of us would be any different...

[rwheeler31]

8. This is a horrible post.

[Nihil]

15. So hide it instead of complaining.

:eyes:

[patrice]

9. Yes. And all of us are also capable of Peace. nt

[The Traveler]

10. Yes, but that is not all we are capable of

We are also instinctively capable of love and community (belonging to a social group). We are animals, but animals who acquired a capacity to think, to express, and to transmit through the written word and representational art our thoughts, feelings, and deeds to our myriad as yet unborn kinsmen.

But, yes, we are all capable of that too, violence. We are, after all, both grazer and predator ... humans can eat almost anything. Violence is only one range of our repertoire. We're adaptable. In that lies our principle grounds of hope for the continued survival of our species.

Trav

[ZombieHorde]

11. No, many people are incapable of violence.

Quadriplegics for example, coma patients, and newborns come to mind.

[On the Road]

12. No question It's within all of us

it just takes certain kinds of stresses and experiencing the world a certain way. It's why I don't own a gun.

[pome2]

13. i am definitely capable

I'm criminal minded and capable

[HappyCynic]

14. Stanford prison experiment

The article mentions the infamous Milgram experiment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment) near the end. For those interested, there is was a much more recent experiments (within this decade) that were essentially partial revisits of the Milgram experiment, which found nothing has really changed in terms of the percentages of people willing to inflict pain.
The Milgram experiment is arguably a bit abstracted, as the person is in another room and the method of pain delivery (pushing a button) is very impersonal. Variants of the Milgram experiment also revealed that one of the key factors was the "authority figure" (the researcher telling them to proceed). Without the authority figure, subjects were less likely to go all the way to the end of the scale.
However, a more relevant experiment is the Stanford prison experiment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment), in which the interactions were very direct.
Both these studies point a bit more towards group dynamics in terms of violent and/or sadistic tendencies. So, it's not necessarily a given that we're born violent and/or sadistic. Our inhibitions against violence/sadism do seem to be quite weak, though.

[Orsino]

16. Mentally capable, probably...

...depending on how for we're pushed.

Perhaps not all of us are capable of wanton violence. Ask me again a month after the food runs out.

[qazplm]

17. violence has it's place

it's a defense mechanism when all others prove inadequate to protect life and limb or loved ones or the innocent.

And in an imperfect world, sometimes, unfortunately, it is necessary.

[mopinko]

18. till recently, we all needed to kill to survive.

i am actually a little surprised that it seems possible that we may evolve to not kill. killing has never been less acceptable. war has never been so roundly condemned.
but we do all have it in us. it is how we got to where we are.

[xiamiam]

19. i believe violence is easily learned...but not natural to our consciousness..nt

[qazplm]

20. if we are talking learned behavior

versus what I assume you mean is our natural state, I'd think you'd have to admit that if given no socialization, humans are very prone to violence, we certainly aren't tame.

Perhaps not wanton and excessive no, but it doesn't require being socialized to be violent, in fact some level of socialization and setting of boundaries is required to reduce our tendency to be violent.

[xiamiam]

21. i dont believe we have a natural tendency to be violent..

i acknowledge that social order requires boundaries...but i just dont agree that humans are naturally prone to violence..i believe that is developed within a social structure...
i dont understand violence...or the need to inflict pain upon another...on any level...i would defend myself, but even when i have been in very dangerous situations, i needed to use my head instead of my physical being ...i dont get it...never have...cant imagine how someone could physically hurt another...i dont think i am uncommon...

[qazplm]

24. i would defend myself

that right there shows your capability of violence. Your aversion to violence is undoubtedly due to social structure...your upbringing by your parents, your interactions with others socially, the combined impact of all of that combined with your own intellectual assimilation of it all.

But let me suggest, that if you'd be born alone, and somehow left to fend for yourself, with no socialization, you'd not likely be anti-violence.

A naturally tendency to be violent does not mean some uncontrolled Hulk rage, but it does mean an uninhibited fight or flight response to stress, with sometimes the response being flight but sometimes the response being fight.

Social structure teaches us to moderate that fight or flight response, as well as our selfish "mine, mine, mine" response that might lead us to bonk someone over the head and take their stuff. Not always successfully obviously, and not without contradictory messages (violence in movies and tv and music).

[verdalaven]

26. Neither did I, until......

My husband and I believed that violence was a learned behavior and that spanking or corporal punishment of any kind taught violence. We never spanked our daughter, ever-and yet, when she hit the "terrible twos and threes" she used violence as an equalizer to manage the world around her. She pinched us, slapped at us, bit us, carried the cat around by the tail. This all from a very cuddly, loving little girl. We had to teach her that it wasn't right to hit, slap and pinch, and once she moved out of that stage, she was almost civilized. :)

We were always schooled by parents (friends and family members alike) who used corporal punishment that if we didn't slap, bite or pinch her, she'd never learn that it hurt. I never understood the logic in that -slap her to teach her not to slap. Our way worked just fine, btw. Redirect, redirect, redirect.

So, long blah blah blah short, I believe we are born violent and relearn peace. It just means we aren't completely evolved yet, but we will get there. Or we will destroy ourselves. One or the other.

[qazplm]

27. I think light corporal punishment

for very young kids, a light swat, is not wrong because as you found out, little kids dont respond to intellectual arguments because they are all Id and little Ego.

Without socialization, you'll never grow completely out of that Id stage.

[xiamiam]

22. while im at it...i cant watch violent movies, or women being stalked

and terrorized...or any of the so called entertainment which is a steady diet of our culture..

[centristgrandpa]

23. the unplan event...

If there is any indicator, look at what we've done to Earth. How many species of life have we wiped out? It's gotta be a conditional trait that is encoded within the dna structure that has a unique triggering mechanism because not all folks are capable of violence, most are but not all.

[east texas lib]

25. I think that question is answered many times over...

All over this planet, every day.