Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

496 | HOW THE MIND WORKStwenty of the twenty-four elections between 1904 and 1996. A glance atthe personal ads shows that women want taller men. As in other specieswhose males compete, the human male is bigger than the female, andhas evolved ways of appearing bigger still, like a low voice and a beard(which makes the head look bigger and has evolved separately in lionsand monkeys). Leonid Brezhnev claimed that he got to the top becauseof his eyebrows! Men everywhere exaggerate the size of their heads(with hats, helmets, headdresses, and crowns), their shoulders (withpads, boards, epaulettes, and feathers), and, in some societies, theirpenises (with impressive codpieces and sheaths, sometimes a yardlong).But humans also evolved language and a new way of propagatinginformation about dominance: reputation. Sociologists have long beenpuzzled that the largest category of motives for homicide in Americancities is not robbery, drug deals gone sour, or other tangible incentives. Itis a category they call "altercation of relatively trivial origin; insult, curse,jostling, etc." Two young men argue over who gets to use the pool tablein a bar. They shove each other and trade insults and obscenities. Theloser, humiliated before onlookers, storms off and returns with a gun.The murders are the epitome of "senseless violence," and the men whocommit them are often written off as madmen or animals.Daly and Wilson point out that these men behave as if a great dealmore is at stake than the use of a pool table. And a great deal more is atstake:Men are known by their fellows as "the sort who can be pushed around"and "the sort who won't take any shit," as people whose word meansaction or people who are full of hot air, as guys whose girlfriends you canchat up with impunity or guys you don't want to mess with.In most social milieus, a man's reputation depends in part upon themaintenance of a credible threat of violence. Conflicts of interest areendemic to society, and one's interests are likely to be violated by competitorsunless those competitors are deterred. Effective deterrence is amatter of convincing our rivals that any attempt to advance their interestsat our expense will lead to such severe penalties that the competitivegambit will end up a net loss which should never have been undertaken.The credibility of the deterrent can be devalued by a public challengethat is not taken up, even if nothing tangible is at stake. Moreover, if achallenger knew that his target was a cool calculator of costs and bene-