Is there an evolutionary reason for aggressive sexual hazing in sports and military contexts?

Humans are pack animals and brutal behaviour/rape is a means to establish and maintain the pecking order/hierarchy and some weakminded individuals lack the capacity to suppress/control their primal urges.

Male aggression is partly hormonal. Testosterone is an anabolic steroid that’s been associated with aggressive behavior (roid rage) since long, long before athletes and bodybuilders began taking injections of it. Women have testosterone, too, at lower levels than men.

To the extent that aggression is associated with male reproductive dominance (common, I think, among apes in general) then genes that promote such behavior (in part by hormonal regulation in the adult; in part by programming fetal brain development; etc.) are selected for and survive over time—consistent with Darwinian evolution.

As for the nut cases in Idaho: Who knows what they were taking? What kind of cultural and environmental idiosyncrasies they shared? How shallow is their end of the gene pool? Many other factors…? Hormonal levels are probably correlated with behavior. not that all aggression is steroid-related. Whatever the cause, I gotta agree with @ragingloli that rape is “weak-minded.”

I agree with @ragingloli . Great answer! OMG! [ faints ] **THUD**

@gasman Not to denote the higher testosterone in men, but more or less to take some of the weight off of men – in my experiences/observations in “hazing”, women can be so much more cruel, brutal and sadistic.

I know the tradition is pretty consistent – it’s the men that rape, beat and pillage the women. However it seems sometimes when women are given the chance, they could be just as ruthless.

@Disc2021 That is because men are usually satisfied with merely establishing dominance as opposed to utterly destroying their opposition. Then again, in many species the female only fights to defend her young; a no-holds-barred situation. In that light, it makes sense that females will fight dirty when they fight at all.

Unacceptable bullying is what it is. Let’s not make up excuses.

@flutherother: Who the hell said anything about excuses? I was looking for an explanation. It’s not something that just happens in a bubble.

I find all hazing outrageous and uncivilized. Great question though, the answers are very interesting.

Maybe the dopamine receptor gene DRD4 has some influence. There might be a link to novelty and thrill-seeking behavior. We all depend on our brains’ reward systems to experience pleasure. Most humans feel wonderful when they play games, hike in the mountains, listen to great music, read exciting books, or have sex. But a minority of human cannot get full satisfaction out of this, because their dopamine system needs the extra kick to experience normal pleasure. Therefore they engage in bungee jumping, gory video games or extreme forms of sex.

You were looking for an explanation. I gave you one, but I think this cannot be the only explanation. I think there are multiple factors. And this gene could be one of several.

Must we look for an evolutionary reason behind any of it? I always find it fascinating when people try to explain human behavior in an ‘evolutionary way’ as if that makes it somehow more acceptable.

I always find it “fascinating” that so many people seem to think finding reasons for behaviors automagically means finding ways to excuse it. That attitude is a subtle endorsement of ignorance.

Really, if I were interested in finding excuses, I would have solicited them.

@bolwerk Why, who was trying to make excuses for it? methinks you have misread my words.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir: nobody. That’s the point.

@bolwerk Right, so we agree.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir: Then why even bring up the red herring that anybody was trying to excuse such behavior?

@bolwerk It was not a red herring. It was part of my response to your question. I do find it true that responses surrounding any issues pertaining to gender and sexualty generally have something to do with biological empiricism and finding answers through evolution rather than tackling the situation or letting it be. Perhaps I should have worded my last sentence differently so that the end of it would go ’...as if that makes it somehow more or less acceptable’ so that you wouldn’t be so quick to make a conclusion of bias in one direction or another.