Is Military incompetence adaptive?

Evolution and Human Behavior

Volumn 20, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 3-17

  Wrangham, Richard ^a  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Assessment; Battles; Military incompetence; Raids; Self deception; Violence

Indexed keywords

EID: 0032621088     PISSN: 10905138     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S1090-5138(98)00040-3     Document Type: Article

References (70)

1. Abramson, L.Y., and Alloy, L.B. Depression, non-depression, and cognitive illusions: A reply to Schwarz. Journal of Experimental Psychology 110: 436-437, 1981.
2. Adams, E.S., and Mesterton-Gibbons, M. The cost of threat displays and the stability of deceptive communication. Journal of Theoretical Biology 175: 405-421, 1995.
3. Alexander, R.D. The Biology of Moral Systems. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 1987.
4. Alexander, R.D. Evolution of the human psyche. In The Human Revolution: Behavioral and Biological Perspectives on the Origins of Modern Humans, P. Mellars and C. Stringer (Eds). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989, pp. 455-513.
5. Babcock, L., and Loewenstein, G. Explaining bargaining impasse: The role of self-serving biases. Journal of Economic Perspectives 11: 109-126, 1997.
6. Boehm, C. Segmentary "warfare" and the management of conflict: Comparison of East African chimpanzees and patrilineal-patrilocal humans. In Coalitions and Alliances in Humans and Other Animals, A.H. Harcourt and F.B.M. de Waal (Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, pp. 137-173.
7. Cashdan, E. Hormones, sex, and status in women. Hormones and Behavior 29: 354-366, 1995.
8. Cosmides, L. The logic of social exchange: Has natural selection shaped how humans reason? Studies with the Wason selection task. Cognition 31: 187-206, 1989.
9. Cosmides, L., and Tooby, J. Cognitive adaptations for social exchange. In The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, J.H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, and J. Tooby (Eds.). New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, pp. 163-228.
10. David, S. Military Blunders: The How and Why of Military Failure. New York: Carroll and Graf, 1997.
11. Dawkins, R., and Krebs, J.R. Animal signals: Information or manipulation? In Behavioral Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach, J.R. Krebs and N.B. Davies (Eds.). Oxford: Blackwell, 1978, pp. 282-309.
12. de Mesquita, B.B., and Lalman, D. War and Reason: Domestic and International Imperatives. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.
13. Dixon, N. On the Psychology of Military Incompetence. London: Jonathan Cape, 1976.
14. Dixon, N. Our Own Worst Enemy. London: Futura, 1988.
15. Dunning, D., Griffin, D., Milojkovic, J., and Ross, L. The overconfidence effect in social prediction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58: 568-581, 1990.
16. Elwood, R.W., Wood, K.E., Gallagher, M.B., and Dick, J.T.A. Probing motivational state during agonistic encounters in animals. Nature 393: 66, 1998.
17. Enquist, M., and Leimar, O. Evolution of fighting behavior; Decision rules and assessment of relative strength. Journal of Theoretical Biology 102: 387-410, 1983.
18. Enquist, M., Leimar, O., Ljungberg, T., Mallner, Y., and Segerdahl, N. A test of the sequential assessment game: Fighting in the cichlid fish Nannacara anomala. Animal Behavior 40: 1-14, 1990.
19. Fraley, R.C., and Shaver, P.R. Adult attachment and the suppression of unwanted thoughts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 73: 1080-1091, 1997.
20. Freud, S. Collected Papers (Vol. 4). (J. Riviere, Trans.). London: Hogarth Press, 1950.
21. Gabriel, R. Military Incompetence: Why the American Military Doesn't Win. New York: Noonday Press, 1986.
22. Gigerenzer, G. The bounded rationality of probabilistic mental modules. In Rationality, K.I. Manktelow and D.E. Over (Eds.). London: Routledge, 1993, pp. 244-313.
23. Gigerenzer, G., and Hug, K. Domain-specific reasoning: Social contracts, cheating, and perspective change. Cognition 43: 127-171, 1992.
24. Goodall, J. The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986.
25. Gould, S.J. The diet of worms and the defenestration of Prague. Natural History Sept: 18-67, 1996.
26. Gur, C.R., and Sackheim, H.A. Self-deception: A concept in search of a phenomenon. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37: 147-169, 1979.
27. Hartung, J. Deceiving down: Conjectures on the management of subordinate status. In Self-deceit: An Adaptive Mechanism, J. Lockard and D. Paulus (Eds.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1988, pp. 170-185.
28. Hartung, J. Love thy neighbor: The evolution of in-group morality. Skeptic 3: 86-99, 1995.
29. Hasson, O. Cheating signals. Journal of Theoretical Biology 167: 223-238, 1994.
30. Heine, S.J., and Lehman, D.R. The cultural construction of self-enhancement: An examination of group-serving biases. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 72: 1268-1283, 1997.
31. Hinde, R.A. Aggression and war: Individuals, groups, and states. In Behavior, Society and International Conflict, P.E. Tetlock, J.L. Husbands and R. Jervis (Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993, pp. 8-70.
32. Kahneman, D., and Tversky, A. Subjective probability: A judgement of representativeness. Cognitive Psychology 3: 430-454, 1972.
33. Keeley, L.H. War Before Civilization. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
34. Kelly, A.E., and Kahn, J.H. Effects of suppression on personal intrusive thoughts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 66: 998-1006, 1994.
35. Kim, Y-G. Status signalling games in animal contests. Journal of Theoretical Biology 176: 221-231, 1995.
36. Klar, Y., and Giladi, E.E. No one in my group can be below the group's average: A robust positivity bias in favor of anonymous peers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 73: 885-901, 1997.
37. Lichtenstein, S., Fischhoff, B., and Phillips, L.D. Calibration of probabilities: The state of the art to 1980. In Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases, D. Kahneman, P. Slovic, and A. Tversky (Eds.). New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 306-334.
38. Loewenstein, G. Behavioral decision theory and business ethics: Skewed tradeoffs between self and others. In Codes of Conduct: Behavioral Research into Business Ethics, D. Messick and A. Tenbrunsel (Eds.). New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1996, pp. 214-227.
39. Manson, J.H., and Wrangham, R.W. Intergroup aggression in chimpanzees and humans. Current Anthropology 32: 369-390, 1991.
40. Mele, A.R. Real self-deception. Behavioral Brain Sciences 20: 91-136, 1997.
41. Messenger, C. Great Military Disasters. New York: Gallery Books, 1991.
42. Miller, D.T., and Ross, M. Self-serving biases in attribution of causality: Fact or fiction? Psychological Bulletin 82: 213-225, 1975.
43. Morgenthau, H. Politics Among Nations. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973.
44. Parker, G.A. Assessment strategy and the evolution of fighting behaviour. Journal of Theoretical Biology 47: 223-243, 1974.
45. Perry, J. Arrogant Armies: Great Military Disasters and the Generals Behind Them. New York: John Wiley, 1996.
46. Popp, J., and DeVore, I. Aggressive competition and social dominance theory. In The Great Apes, D.A. Hamburg and E.R. McCown (Eds.). Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings, 1979, pp. 317-338.
47. Rabbie, J.M. Group processes as stimulants of aggression. In Aggression and War, J Groebel and R.A. Hinde (Eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp. 141-155.
48. Raps, C.S., Peterson, C., Reinhard, K.E., Abramson, L.Y., and Seligman, M.E.P. Attributional style among depressed patients. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 91: 102-108, 1982.
49. Regan, G. Someone had Blundered: A Historical Survey of Military Incompetence. London: B.T. Batsford, 1987.
50. Regan, G. Snafu: Great American Military Disasters. New York: Avon, 1993.
51. Rue, L. By the Grace of Guile: The Role of Deception in Natural History and Human Affairs. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
52. Sackeim, H.A., and Gur, R.C. Flavors of self-deception: Ontology and epidemiology. Behavioral Brain Sciences 20: 125-126, 1997.
53. Sedikides, C., Campbell, W.K., Reeder, G., and Elliot, A.J. The self-serving bias in relational context. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74: 378-386, 1998.
54. Starek, J.E., and Keating, C.F. Self-deception and its relationship to success in competition. Basic and Applied Social Psychology 12: 145-155, 1991.
55. Stephenson, G.M. Intergroup and interpersonal dimensions of bargaining and negotiation. In The Social Dimension: Europeans Developments in Social Psychology (Vol. 2), H. Tajfel (Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984, pp. 646-667.
56. Surbey, M.K., and McNally, J.J. Self-deception as a mediator of cooperation and defection in varying social contexts described in the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma. Evolution and Human Behavior 18: 417-435, 1997.
57. Tajfel, H. Human Groups and Social Categories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
58. Taylor, S.E. Positive Illusions: Creative Self-deception and the Healthy Mind. New York: Basic Books, 1989.
59. Taylor, S.E., and Armor, D.A. Positive illusions and coping with adversity. Journal of Personality 64: 873-898, 1996.
60. Taylor, S.E., and Gollwitzer, P.M. Effect of mindset on positive illusions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 69:213-226, 1995.
61. Tennen, H., and Herzberger, S. Depression, self-esteem, and the absence of self-protective attributional biases. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 52: 72-80, 1987.
62. Trivers, R.L. Social Evolution. Menlo Park, California: Benjamin/Cummings, 1985.
63. Trivers, R.L. Deceit and self-deception: The relationship between communication and consciousness. In Man and Beast Revisited, M.H. Robinson and L. Tiger (Eds.). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991, pp. 175-192.
64. Tversky, A., and Kahneman, D. Judgement under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science 185: 1124-1131, 1974.
65. Tversky, A., and Kahneman, D. The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science 211: 453-458, 1981.
66. Tuchman, B. The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.
67. von Winterfeldt, D., and Edwards, W. Decision Analysis and Behavioral Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
68. Wegner, D.M. Ironic processes and mental control. Psychological Review 101: 34-52, 1994.
69. Wrangham, R.W., and Peterson, D. Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
70. Zuckerman, M. Attribution of success and failure revisited, or the motivational bias is alive and well in attribution theory. Journal of Personality 47: 245-287, 1979.