Are humans inherently violent?

Posted on June 21, 2025  •  6 minutes  • 1137 words

A human mind is a cacophony of various emotions. Love, Anger, Joy, Greed, Pride, Fear, Envy, Bliss, and the list keeps on going. While each person experiences these emotions to different extents, the way we harmonize these emotions is very unique and different. While someone prefers pride as a default state, others prefer anger. Or do they? The curious explorer is here to understand what generally drives humans. Are emotions innate, or are they just means to a goal? Simply put, are humans inherently violent? Or does violence exist to achieve something? To answer this question of violence, let me take you through a ride, and the first question I ask is: why does aggression exist in living beings in the first place?

Aggression is innate and highly conserved across many animal species. Often, animals compete for scarce or valuable resources for survival. Animals fight for territory, food, and their potential mates. However, this aggression does not have to be violent. Nature evolved mechanisms to reduce violence, and animals started to engage in ritualistic behaviours. Gorillas beat their chests, peacocks show their feathers, mice sing ultrasonic songs, and many spiders dance. Despite the evolution of such mechanisms to show aggression, prosocial behaviour (helping others without any expectation of something in return) has not evolved to a great extent in the animal kingdom. There sure are some striking exceptions, like the capuchin monkeys who are more sensitive to the welfare of others. Although we see that with the evolution of parental investment and caring, these prosocial behaviours evolve, it is not highly clear why. The question would then be: is prosocial behaviour innate or is it a learned behaviour?

I guess the answer to this could be found when we try to understand kids. Kids who did not see and learn much from the world can hint at human nature. While Hobbes (philosopher) believes humans are inherently selfish and violent, Rousseau believes that violence is learnt by humans. Although this topic is more intricate, here I present my understanding and some curated information. Let me take you through various stages of human growth and look at how aggression changes over time.

Broadly, aggression is proactive and reactive. Proactive aggression is goal-oriented. It is a calculated aggression in order to get something in return. Reactive aggression is an aggression that one performs reacting to the environment. Kicking, pulling, biting, and pinching are some reactive aggressions babies display. At the age of 6-8 months, such reactive aggression is displayed to protect themselves. And this peaks around 17 months, where babies not only protect themselves but also their toys. Simultaneously, around 8-12 months, babies start to demonstrate sharing behaviour (food or objects). By 12 months, they spontaneously share information with adults, like pointing out objects. The response they receive during this time helps them map the importance of communication and can drive them to prosocial behaviour. By 18-25 months they reliably develop helping, comforting, and cooperating behaviours. This is when children start to develop an understanding of others’ mental states. This is also the phase when some kids tend to develop proactive aggression as a means to achieve their goals (not the default reactive aggression). Kids who have not developed effective learning and agreeability by this age do not understand empathy and therefore rely on aggression. Longitudinal studies show that aggression reduces in kids at the ages of 3-5 years when the brain develops more reasoning capabilities. Kids who continue to be aggressive by the age of 6-7 years strongly tend to be more aggressive as adults. This proactive aggression in some kids comes from social learning. Exposure to violent media, or observing adults act violently towards a Bobo doll, makes the kids imitate aggression more strongly. However, some kids also develop higher social-emotional empathy. Societal factors in general play a major role in aggressive behaviour. In individualistic countries such as the United States, children tend to show more aggression, while collectivistic cultures promote social interdependence and lower aggression levels in kids.

While societal impact is not the only influence on aggression, genetic makeup is being shown to impact aggressive behaviour too. Males generally exhibit higher levels of physical aggression, while women tend to utilize relational aggression. Women perform covert manipulation of social relations. Males too can adapt to this pattern depending on their societal constraints. Other genetic predispositions include genes like “MAOA”, often dubbed as the warrior gene. Higher activity of this gene reduces dopamine metabolism and therefore individuals might tend to perform stronger aggression to receive the feeling of goal achievement. Another major gene, “CDH13”, variants reduce neural connectivity and thereby social receptiveness, leading to greater tendency of aggression. “AVPR1A” is another gene that is linked to childhood aggression.

The more we see, we realise that both genetic factors and societal impact lead to aggressive behaviour in humans in a more nuanced manner than our initial perception. With the current narrative, it seems as if prosocial behaviour is learnt and aggression is unlearnt as humans progress through age. The ability and preference to unlearn aggression seem to be a major driver of aggressive human behaviour.

With these thoughts, I walked along on the footpath. The thoughts of unfulfilled answers and a hidden sense of a definite misunderstanding on the whole concept. “Are humans inherently violent?”, the question echoed louder in the silence of my thoughts. Just then, from the opposite direction came a little kid running. His feet barely touched the ground as he passed and he looked at me and blurted out “Guten Morgen.” His warm wish snapped me out of my mist of thought, and I almost instinctively looked back at the running kid, wishing him back a happy morning. He stopped just for a second, as if to deliver me the truth of life. His face beamed with happiness and the most radient smile. A smile so infective that I beamed in joy and returned a big smile. The heart felt lighter and life made sense. A happy smile, the big goal of life, and the easily forgotten yet reachable target was on my lips. I then realised that I got it all wrong and my deepest belief had been right all along: children are not born violent—they never were. Kids are pure embodiments of joy and bliss. They share their information and toys as means of sharing their joy. Simple greeting isn’t an obligation but pure instinct of spreading love. All we could do as adults is not to let the joy burn out. A simple good morning, or just a simple smile. What better fuel for the burning joy than sharing love and warmth? The curious explorer now pauses, not to question, but to listen—to you. Tell me: what has been your moment of happiness with a child? I’d love to hear your joy.