The Student Room Group

Evolutionarry explanation for war...

Oops double 'r' in 'evolutionary'

I've been thinking recently why we have war, when it is obviously detrimental to society. So I came up with the following idea:

Let’s say there are two tribes, one tribe is peaceful and cooperative, the other is violent. Obviously, the first tribe will be more likely to survive; therefore you would assume that peace would be selected for. However, if a third tribe that was peaceful within its self but attacked other tribes came about, then that tribe would be selected for because it would kill other tribes and grow. Similar to regular natural selection. So what I’m saying is evolution will select tribes that can conquer other tribes, in other words war.

I suppose this is a form of group selection and I'm aware that someone may have said this before me, but I'm wondering if this makes any sense?
(edited 13 years ago)

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you