spite as key to future wars

Nice article in New Scientist 16 May about spitefulness, which is deeply ingrained in human nature. It seems to have evolved as a way of ensuring cooperation by punishing those that abuse trust and cooperation. Looking at wider human problems, I wonder if it isn't the underlying cause of wars, along with selfishness. People want peace, but those that are peaceful are often taken advantage of by those who are selfish and want to further their own interests at others' expense. If you don't defend yourself, you will eventually get attacked and your stuff taken from you. So we are forced to invest valuable resources in defence to make sure others leave us alone, which leaves everyone worse off.

Spite goes much further than mere self defense though, and amplifies the response into punishment. We are prepared to suffer in order to cause more suffering to the party that abused the system. Although this makes it worthwhile to stick to the common rules, when combined with powerful defence systems, it makes a dangerous trait. We don't just prevent attacks from succeeding with minimum force, we try to do much greater damage to the other party. Then spite forces further amplificied retailiation and so on until both parties are fully at war, whihc often ends only when one side is vanquished.

But of course, if we simply avoid spitefulness ourselves, we are then at the mercy of others who are willing to take full advantage of lack of punishment. If they would only be met with the minimum force required to restrain them, they would proceed.

So we're stuck. We want to be civilised, but human nature says that unless we can eradicate selfishness and spitefulness in every human being, the whole world is forced to endure repetition of conflicts. And as technology amplifies the potential damage that can be inflicted, and especially as it amplifies assymetry between risk and the ability to inflict damage on the other side, wars will get more and more damaging. We fool ourselves frequently that we have risen above warfare in Europe, but we have only done so because no-one has yet caused sufficient offence. Give it time.