The Role of Evolution in Ethnocentric Conflict and Its Management

Abstract

Although ethnocentric conflict is perhaps the most intractable political problem of our times, we understand it very incompletely. A useful explanation must be evolutionarily informed, but it must go beyond inclusive fitness theory, the heart of sociobiology. Culturally evolved predispositions for human sociality and social identity are also critical for explaining the intransigence of ethnocentric conflicts, and they could have evolved independently of, and even at odds with, biological evolution. Sociobiological theory produces either resignation or inefficacious action proposals to manage ethnic conflicts, and it ignores the peacemaking relevance of culturally evolved predispositions, which can help ethnic groups to manage conflict in constructive ways. 1991 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues