Killing, Mercy, and Empathic Emotions: The Emotional Lives of East African Warriors

Abstract

The question of whether violence is an aspect of human nature, perhaps conferring an evolutionary advantage, is an enduringly controversial one. Although we do not take a position on either side of the debate in this paper, our concerns are relevant to it. First, we discuss the conditions under which “normal” humans will inflict harm on other humans in the context of social pressure. Next, we report results of a field lab experiment with Samburu men of the “warrior” age-grade in northern Kenya that tested empathy for cultural insiders compared to culturally defined enemies. We draw conclusions concerning empathy’s situational flexibility in relation to violence and other forms of harm against fellow humans, empathy’s evolutionary importance for human cooperation, and the need to bring rigor and precision to bear on empathy’s biological mechanisms, neural correlates, and psychosocial consequences.