Bullying is good for bullies

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q-bB-qywJ0[/youtube]

You all might find this very interesting. BuyerBeware, things might not be as set in stone as we think.

I am pretty sure we can't just give human alpha males tuberculous. J/K

I know, I know. That is not the main point. A couple of things struck me about this. The first: that apparently alpha male traits in that particular case seemed to be linked to a vulnerability to a particular disease. The other is that you needed to have something as dramatic as the death of all the adult alpha males to create that kind of change in the baboon population. What would have happened if there were one or two of them left? Would they have continued to set the tone?

It makes me wonder what the critical mass for change is in the human population. How much of the behavior do you have to get rid of to turn that corner?

In addition, remember that they were still socially interconnected (very much so), just in a more pro-social, positive way. I wonder how an aspie male baboon would be treated in that environment. It may be that they would still be mean to the baboon, but in a different, more subtle way.

Who knows is what I say.

So, if brusing is inflammation then it evens out the inflammatory imbalance. Thus, punching bullies in the face is a medical imperative. It's scientific, even.

I've heard some interesting arguments from an evolutionary perspective about this. There are two natural selection forces at work here: from an individual level, selfishness (or lets say individualism) is a successful strategy, and so these traits do get selected and remain as a part of the human population as a whole (to different degrees in different people).

This is counteracted by selflessness (or collectivism) which is successful at the societal level. Groups of people who work well together do better than groups who don't, so on a group level, selflessness gets selected.

The result is that as individuals and as groups there is a tension between individualist (selfishness and individual expression) and collectivist (compassion and conformity) impulses.

While it is nice to think that humanity is morally evolving (and it likely is), there is also a constant truth - sometimes cheaters do win. As long as that is the case, these sorts of strategies will remain a viable and desirable option for some people at some times.

That article is probably just talking about sociopaths in general whether they're actually "bullies" or not.

Sociopaths probably tend to feel less stress since they don't feel emotions or have a conscience to speak of, and they don't care about other people either(in a good way). They also believe that they're superior to everyone else by default.

I am not a proponent of the usual arguments that arise from game theory, but sometimes it is the right tool for the analysis part. Game Theory is basically what you are talking about here. The baboon example is a situation where the more selfish players were kicked out of the game due to an exogenous factor, resulting in more cooperative outcomes.

Why don't you like game theory? What are you a proponent of?

Back when I was in school, it was very much associated with the Austrian school of economics, of which I am not a proponent. They tend to have a more conservative approach than I am comfortable with.

The tool itself, I find useful.