- Oxford Library of Psychology
- [UNTITLED]
- Short Contents
- Oxford Library of Psychology
- About the Editors
- Contributors
- Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War
- Violence Across Animals and Within Early Hominins
- Comparative Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence
- Intimate Partner Violence: War at Our Doorsteps
- Chastity, Fidelity, and Conquest: Biblical Rules for Women and War
- Filicide and Child Maltreatment: Prospects for Ultimate Explanation
- Siblicide in Humans and Other Species
- Familial Homicide-Suicide
- Suicide
- Evolutionary Perspectives on Male-Male Competition, Violence, and Homicide
- Evolutionary Psychological Perspectives on Sexual Offending: From Etiology to Intervention
- Women and Aggression
- Culture of Honor, Violence, and Homicide
- Sacrifice and Sacred Values: Evolutionary Perspectives on Religious Terrorism
- Animal Abuse and Cruelty
- If, When, and Why Adolescent Bullying Is Adaptive
- The Male Warrior Hypothesis: The Evolutionary Psychology of Intergroup Conflict, Tribal Aggression, and Warfare
- A Feminist Evolutionary Analysis of the Relationship Between Violence Against and Inequitable Treatment of Women, and Conflict Within and Between Human Collectives, Including Nation-States
- War Histories in Evolutionary Perspective: Insights From Prehistoric North America
- War, Evolution, and the Nature of Human Nature
- Parasite Stress, Collectivism, and Human Warfare
- Band of Brothers or Band of Siblings?: An Evolutionary Perspective on Sexual Integration of Combat Forces
- An Evolutionary Perspective on Child Development in the Context of War and Political Violence
- The Extremes of Conflict in Literature: Violence, Homicide, and War
- Why Religion Is Unable to Minimize Lethal and Nonlethal Societal Dysfunction Within and Between Nations
- Peace and the Human Animal: Toward Integration of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology and Peace Studies
- Resource Acquisition, Violence, and Evolutionary Consciousness
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
Sexual integration of combat forces presents underappreciated challenges. Sex differences in physical capacity remain important in modern warfare, and the sexes also differ in combat-relevant psychological traits, including risk taking and aggressiveness. Moreover, group dynamics have consequences for unit cohesion and combat performance. Men more easily participate in coalitions organized to mete out violence, a tendency enhanced in the presence of intergroup competition. Men's coalitions require lower levels of investment and can persist for longer in the face of within-group conflict than women's coalitions. Combat units rely on cohesion to enable performance, and introduction of women tends to reduce cohesion because, among other reasons, men often find it difficult to trust women. The attributes that soldiers value in comrades are ones that would have been important for primitive warriors, including strength, physical courage, and other aspects of masculinity, which may mean that women cannot evoke trust in their male comrades the way other men can.
Keywords: coalitions, sex differences, women in combat, military, risk taking, physical aggressiveness, cohesion, trust, combat motivation
Kingsley R. Browne, Wayne State University Law School, Detroit, MI
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- Oxford Library of Psychology
- [UNTITLED]
- Short Contents
- Oxford Library of Psychology
- About the Editors
- Contributors
- Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War
- Violence Across Animals and Within Early Hominins
- Comparative Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence
- Intimate Partner Violence: War at Our Doorsteps
- Chastity, Fidelity, and Conquest: Biblical Rules for Women and War
- Filicide and Child Maltreatment: Prospects for Ultimate Explanation
- Siblicide in Humans and Other Species
- Familial Homicide-Suicide
- Suicide
- Evolutionary Perspectives on Male-Male Competition, Violence, and Homicide
- Evolutionary Psychological Perspectives on Sexual Offending: From Etiology to Intervention
- Women and Aggression
- Culture of Honor, Violence, and Homicide
- Sacrifice and Sacred Values: Evolutionary Perspectives on Religious Terrorism
- Animal Abuse and Cruelty
- If, When, and Why Adolescent Bullying Is Adaptive
- The Male Warrior Hypothesis: The Evolutionary Psychology of Intergroup Conflict, Tribal Aggression, and Warfare
- A Feminist Evolutionary Analysis of the Relationship Between Violence Against and Inequitable Treatment of Women, and Conflict Within and Between Human Collectives, Including Nation-States
- War Histories in Evolutionary Perspective: Insights From Prehistoric North America
- War, Evolution, and the Nature of Human Nature
- Parasite Stress, Collectivism, and Human Warfare
- Band of Brothers or Band of Siblings?: An Evolutionary Perspective on Sexual Integration of Combat Forces
- An Evolutionary Perspective on Child Development in the Context of War and Political Violence
- The Extremes of Conflict in Literature: Violence, Homicide, and War
- Why Religion Is Unable to Minimize Lethal and Nonlethal Societal Dysfunction Within and Between Nations
- Peace and the Human Animal: Toward Integration of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology and Peace Studies
- Resource Acquisition, Violence, and Evolutionary Consciousness
- Index