War: a monkey business

Social dynamics, rather than immediate competition for resources, seem to be central to the choice between engaging in war or remaining at peace with rivals. What's more, 'previous conflicts shape future decisions' on the choice between war and peace. Engaging in conflict may aim at preventing a rival from gaining too much dominance, or defending a potential ally. In the long run, however, strategies of conflict and peace are indeed linked to 'the fight for status and the access to resources that status brings'.

Sound familiar? Sound pretty obvious, even? The finding comes from a study by Jessica Flack and colleagues Simon DeDeo and David Krakauer, who collected and analysed data from 160 days of field observations of a group of 84 monkeys. Instead of starting out with assumptions and hypotheses about why and when the monkeys get involved in fights, Flac and her team decided to collect data on a group of pigtailed macaques at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Lawrenceville, Georgia, and see what patterns emerge.

Clearly, in humans the decision to fight is also shaped by moral and emotional choices, and it would be unhelpful, not to say dangerous, to reduce such decisions to a genetic predisposition beyond moral and rational control. All the same, the study will hopefully provide some insights into what shapes human conflicts (source: New Scientist).

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