Transcript Group display (Warfare and sport)

10 minutes to answer the questions
1) What is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqfHv9FO
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Evaluation
infidelity and jealousy
Group display
(Warfare and sport)
Evolutionary explanation.
• How does the evolutionary theory explain
warfare?
• What is it good for
Boardwork
Outline the evolutionary explanation
Look at the research for warfare and sport
(validity and reliability)
Evaluation: Could any other theory explain it
better. Could it be considered socially sensitive.
Can the theory help us reduce negative aspects
of group display such as hooliganism.
Sport
• Group displays are ritualised displays of
aggression by and between groups of people
• Sports involve displays of skills and strength,
behaviour attractive to females who will select
the winning males for reproductive success on
the basis of their display of genetic fitness
• The posturing and ritualised displays are not seen
as violent however they could be a catalyst for
serious acts of aggression
What message is this giving?
Sport
• In one respect group displays in sport can be
seen as having replaced tribal warfare, where
one identifiable tribal team goes into ritualized
battle against another identifiable tribal team.
Sport involves displays of strength and skill;
behaviours that may be attractive to females
who will select winning males.
• Sporting victories being increased status and
thus reproductive fitness to supporters of
teams as well as the players.
Xenophobia
• Xenophobia is the fear of outsiders, and in sport
this means any of the opposition
• MacDonald (1992) suggested from an evolutionary
perspective it is adaptive to exaggerate negative
stereotypes about outsiders because to
overestimate the threat is less costly than
underestimating it
• Avoiding attack would mean we had a better
chance of reproducing, so we must do it at any
cost. This could explain why many sports fans act
as a close knit collective, with a hatred of
opposition fans.
Xenophobia
• Shaw & Wong argue that mechanisms that prompt suspicion
towards strangers would have been favoured by natural
selection.
• This would have enabled our ancestors to avoid attack and
leave behind more offspring
• Podaliri & Balestri found evidence in sports events to suggest
such Xenophobic responses are evident in human beings also:
particularly in the behaviour of Italian football crowds. From
the end of the 1980’s, xenophobic political organisations such
as the Northern League in Italy had led to the growth of
extreme right-wing movements with racist chants and openly
anti-Semitic banners.
Xenophobia
• However many other sport events other than football
have no issue with Xenophobia being a particular
problem;
• An example of this is Rugby where by supporters
actually sit together in stadiums and such aggressive
group behaviour is not really an issue and in
comparison, supporters are relatively relaxed.
• Another example is the sport of cricket which
encourages “fair-play” and Sportsmanship more so and
hence players as well as supporters are found to be
rather placid in comparison suggesting such xenophobic
responses may be learnt in some respect.
Group Displays of Aggression
• Can this be applied to the real world?
• Can one explanation cover all crowd
behaviour?
• Could it be entertainment, not aggression?
• Could these be explained more coherently
through social explanations instead of
evolutionary explanations?