Evolutionary psychology and political science

Justin Zyla and Anthony C. Lopez

Chapter 13 in Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, 2026, pp 219-241 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Abstract: Evolutionary approaches to politics offer powerful insights into a wide range of behaviors, most notably voting behavior and party politics. In contrast, political scientists have yet to fully unpack its implications for human warfare. We contribute to that effort through one foundational step: decomposing war into its constituent behavioral repertoires. Specifically, we argue that offensive, defensive, and total war each reflect distinct psychological and ecological logics, shaped by different adaptive problems. Offensive war is best understood through human, as well as chimpanzee models, of coordinated raiding; defensive war likely emerges from anti-predator adaptations for physical safety; and total war, as seen in genocide, may reflect a costly and mismatched repertoire rooted in outgroup annihilation and hatred. Rather than treating war as a unitary phenomenon, we advocate an evolutionary framework that disaggregates collective violence into functionally distinct categories. This reframing clarifies long-standing debates and opens new directions for research on political violence, cognitive specialization, and evolutionary mismatch.

Keywords: Evolutionary Psychology; Politics; Coalitional Violence; Offensive War; Defensive War; Total War (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035332496
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