The bioeconomic causes of war

Jack Hirshleifer

Managerial and Decision Economics, 1999, vol. 19, issue 7-8, 457-466

Abstract: Wars are fought not only for material goals but for intangible ends such as honor and prestige. In biological terms the ultimate functional motives for fighting are food and sex, the essential elements of reproductive success. Like many other animals, humans seek food and sex directly, but also indirectly via dominance and prestige. In modern times the direct food and sex motives for warfare have waned. But, although largely disconnected from reproductive success, intangible goals such as prestige, dominance, and respect-amplified by the 'affiliative instinct'-remain with us as continuing causes of war. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 1999
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Working Paper: The Bioeconomic Causes of War (2001)
Working Paper: The Bioeconomic causes of war (1998)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:mgtdec:v:19:y:1999:i:7-8:p:457-466

DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1468(199811/12)19:7/8<457::AID-MDE897>3.0.CO;2-H

Access Statistics for this article

Managerial and Decision Economics is currently edited by Antony Dnes

More articles in Managerial and Decision Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().