The Socio-Ethical Outlook on the Concept of Human Aggression and a Concept of Good Society—Towards New Socio-Religious Approaches for Human Morality—Theoretical Debate

The authors analyze the concept of human aggression and the concept of a good society as they are both perceived in the sociological and interdisciplinary domains. They debate the issue of human aggression observed in contemporary societies, which hampers general social development worldwide, the expedition of socio-religious morality, and the positive action of good behavior. Both concepts have a long record of sociological research, although the exploration of the concept of a good society was most popular in the sociological research of the 1970s. At present, a substantial increase in the levels of human aggression among and particularly towards religious communities in societies during peacetime is seen as the most complex impediment to the preservation of good societies, regardless of their structural endeavors. The authors analyze the available data, including empirical data, concerning their researched theme to identify a theoretical framework of linkages that would allow them to perform further research and take stock of the scientific efforts made so far to perceive morality as a platform connecting good society models with the potential for the reduction in aggression.

Evolution, Biology, and Aggression

There are numerous complementary approaches to the biology of aggression, ranging from genetic to cognitive research. Arguably, the most successful of them have been guided by hypotheses derived from evolutionary theory. In contrast to the view that human aggression is symptomatic of psychological impairment, social disorganization, or both, evolution-minded hypotheses typically begin from the premise that aggression has been designed by natural selection to serve one or more adaptive functions, and that the mechanisms involved can be sensitive to cues of reproductive consequences in the social environment. Specifically, anatomical, physiological, and psychological adaptations for aggression are expected to evolve when they help individuals secure resources and matings for themselves and for their genealogical kin. From a theoretical perspective, contexts of predation, sexual competition, and sexual conflict are especially likely to foment aggression. A considerable body of research on aggression in nonhuman animals reinforces the adaptationist position, and central findings of this viewpoint—such as differential risk of violence according to sex and kinship—are closely mirrored in humans. Although many features of human aggression are likely the result of adaptations designed to yield these very features, others are more plausibly understood as byproducts of adaptations designed for different purposes. In either case, evolutionary approaches can help to identify the mechanisms underlying aggression and thereby provide ways to reduce its impact.

Geopsychology of instrumental aggression: daily concurrence of global terrorism and solar-geomagnetic activity (1970-2018)

Formal scientific study of the geopsychology of human aggression dates back at least a century and has consistently demonstrated a positive association between solar-geomagnetic activity and aggressive behaviour. Advances in the theories, methodologies, and practical applications of geopsychology could therefore contribute to collective efforts to comprehend, to forecast, and to develop interventions for aggressive behaviours such as those seen in terrorism. This requires a rigorous and precise estimate of the magnitude of association between solar-geomagnetic activity and aggression using a representative, contemporary sample of strictly-operationalized behaviour. Here we show that days in recent history (1970-2018) with the lowest levels of instrumental human aggression (number of casualty-associated terrorism incidents) also had the lowest levels of solar and geomagnetic activity, and that stepwise increases in human aggression were mirrored by progressive increases in solar activity. We used Bayesian methods robust to outliers and heterogeneity of variance to analyze the most comprehensive and contemporary global database of terrorism incidents available, which included more than 106,000 unique instances of instrumental aggression spanning 48 years. We conclude that there is a small, nonzero promotional effect of solar-geomagnetic activity on terrorism-related aggression. This may reflect the fact that solar-geomagnetic activity serves as a zeitgeber that coordinates the expression of instrumental aggression across an aggregation of susceptible individuals. We propose that many behaviours – even instrumental acts such as terrorism which are presumed to involve a degree of planning and intention – may be subject to subtle geopsychological induction or suppression.

Neural network model for multimodal recognition of human aggression

Увеличение количества пользователей социокиберфизических систем, умных пространств, систем интернета вещей актуализирует проблему выявления деструктивных действий пользователей, таких как агрессия. При этом, деструктивные действия пользователей могут быть представлены в различных модальностях: двигательная активность тела, сопутствующее выражение лица, невербальное речевое поведение, вербальное речевое поведение. В статье рассматривается нейросетевая модель многомодального распознавания человеческой агрессии, основанная на построении промежуточного признакового пространства, инвариантного виду обрабатываемой модальности. Предлагаемая модель позволяет распознавать с высокой точностью агрессию в условиях отсутствия или недостатка информации какой-либо модальности. Экспериментальное исследование показало 81:8% верных распознаваний на наборе данных IEMOCAP. Также приводятся результаты экспериментов распознавания агрессии на наборе данных IEMOCAP для 15 различных сочетаний обозначенных выше модальностей. Growing user base of socio-cyberphysical systems, smart environments, IoT (Internet of Things) systems actualizes the problem of revealing of destructive user actions, such as various acts of aggression. Thereby destructive user actions can be represented in different modalities: locomotion, facial expression, associated with it, non-verbal speech behavior, verbal speech behavior. This paper considers a neural network model of multi-modal recognition of human aggression, based on the establishment of an intermediate feature space, invariant to the actual modality, being processed. The proposed model ensures high-fidelity aggression recognition in the cases when data on certain modality are scarce or lacking. Experimental research showed 81.8% correct recognition instances on the IEMOCAP dataset. Also, experimental results are given concerning aggression recognition on the IEMOCAP dataset for 15 different combinations of the modalities, outlined above.

Odrzucenie i samotność. Joachim Bauer o źródłach ludzkiej agresji

Rejection and loneliness. Joachim Bauer on the sources of human aggression: Aggression by other people, in its various manifestations, is a common phenomenon of the modern world. The mass and repetitiveness of aggressive behaviour support the position of anthropological pessimism. This position is dominant in social sciences, including psychology. The author of the paper considers whether the researchers, who show the evil of human nature, are right. While doing so she refers to Joachim Bauer’s counterarguments presented in his book Schmerz­grenze —­ Vom­ Ursprung ­alltäglicher ­und­ globaler­ Gewalt [Pain threshold: on the origin of everyday and global violence] (München 2011). Bauer rejects the view that aggression is inevitable and is a natural human need. In his opinion, it is pain of rejection that is the source of human aggression.