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[rory_20_uk]

In mammals and especially primates the rate limiting step in having more primates is the females. They can carry only a few at a time and that is for a long time. The young are very delicate.

So, every female that is lost has a significant impact on the reproductive rate of the group. Keeping them safe especially when pregnant and vunerable.

Males, on the other hand, are close to expendible - one male can fertilise a large group of females at almost no cost to themselves.

So assuming at the world isn't all nice and fluffy, men are required to undertake three roles: ensure that all fertile women are pregnant (suckling is birth control, as soon as they're on solids, time for another one), provide food and kill any threat whether perceived or real.

Women are good with empathy and reading body language in others - seeing and reading the group dynamic. Massive muscles aren't really helpful and so are not present - save the protien for the next generation, eh? Oh, and looking fertile helps, too since men can pick up on the phenotype which is a surrogate marker for sexual maturity, not the chronological age of a female.

Males then have evolved to be highly interested in sex, a low threshold for the phenotype partners (as long as fertile) and with a high demand for situations that provide excitement / aggression. The need for "empathy" is mainly linked to enjoying the screwing of the former and the killing of the latter - introspection along the lines of "but how do I make the external threat feel" is not something that leads to many descendants, whereas "good, it's dead - now what else can I kill or screw" is more likely to get both - and is almost the thought process that goes on at weekends outside many clubs in the UK.

That is of course changing, but unsurprisingly children especially have not had millions of years of programming taken out of them and so will instinctively pick on those who display traits that were not linked to success.

Many cultures are adapting to this new world, but the pace of change that is required is great. Cultures take longer to alter, and are doing so at different rates - ranging from acceptance through illegality to state sanctioned murder.

[HoreTore]

Instinctively?

Do humans have instincts?

[Greyblades]

None strong enough to excuse being an offensive dolt.

[HoreTore]

None

Correct.

We have reflexes and we have drives, but we do not have instincts. We use our brains instead, and we do make decisions.

[rory_20_uk]

A vast amount of published, peer reviewed literature disagrees with you.

[HoreTore]

A vast amount of published, peer reviewed literature disagrees with you.

Yes, pre-70's published, peer reviewed literature.

After the 70's tough, instinct has been abandoned as a meaningful term in psychology.

EDIT: You will still find the term used in other branches of science though, but that's just sloppy use of terminology, like the butchering of physics terms common in social science.

[rory_20_uk]

One from 2014

Lots and lots in all sorts of fields in google scholar. Clearly not such a passe term.