by Martin Phipps <martinphipps2@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Feb 22, 2008 at 06:04 AM
I researched this a bit while I was on vacation. Specifically I read
the book _Agression_ by John Paul Scott. Back in 1958, Scott
concluded that there is no "instinct for fighting", that agression is
learned behavior. He was making the distinction between agressiveness
and agression: a bull is more aggressive than an ox but neither will
demonstrate agression until provoked. He defined agression as
unprovoked violent behavior: soldiers are trained, for example, to
display agression in times of war. They do not wait for the enemy to
attack: if anything, they simply wait for their orders. The Y
chromosome doesn't cause anyone to display aggression but it does make
people more aggressive. So the CSI: Miami episode that talked about
the XYY syndrome was wrong: psychologists never said that an extra Y
chromosome made people violent and if psychiatrists were telling
parents that it did then they were failing to make the distinction
between being violent and being aggressive. Someone with an extra Y
chromosome will be less violent than someone who was actually taught
to be violent by an authority figure. Conversely, it seems that the
more time we spend in a peaceful environment the more we learn not to
fight. This appears to be true regardless of your genetic makeup.
Martin
