Men who are physically strong are more likely to have right wing political views. By Emma Innes. Daily Mail, May 16, 2013.
Political Motivations May Have Evolutionary Links to Physical Strength. Press Release. APS, May 15, 2013.
The Ancestral Logic of Politics: Upper-Body Strength Regulates Men’s Assertion of Self-Interest Over Economic Redistribution. By Michael Bang Petersen et al. Psychological Science, published online before print, May 13, 2013.
Abstract:
Over
human evolutionary history, upper-body strength has been a major component of
fighting ability. Evolutionary models of animal conflict predict that actors
with greater fighting ability will more actively attempt to acquire or defend
resources than less formidable contestants will. Here, we applied these models
to political decision making about redistribution of income and wealth among
modern humans. In studies conducted in Argentina, Denmark, and the United
States, men with greater upper-body strength more strongly endorsed the
self-beneficial position: Among men of lower socioeconomic status (SES),
strength predicted increased support for redistribution; among men of higher
SES, strength predicted increased opposition to redistribution. Because personal
upper-body strength is irrelevant to payoffs from economic policies in modern
mass democracies, the continuing role of strength suggests that modern
political decision making is shaped by an evolved psychology designed for
small-scale groups.
