Control of human aggression. A comparative perspective

Recent animal research has demonstrated that humans are not a uniquely aggressive species and that even in so-called violence-prone animals, aggression is always an optional strategy. Although some form of intraspecific aggression exists in every vertebrate species studied thus far, it is also true that all organisms have coevolved equally potent inhibitory mechanisms that enable them to use an aggressive strategy selectively or to suppress aggression when it is in their interest to do so. Parallel studies of aggression in children, assaultive adults, and even entire societies have suggested that humans are exquisitely sensitive to subtle social controls that could be used to reduce the frequency of individual acts of violence.