evolutionary explanation

• unlike women men cannot be sure if they truly are biological fathers of offspring - paternity uncertainty
• paternity uncertainty creates the risk of cuckoldery - raising children that are not biologically yours
• since cuckoldery involves investment of resources in offspring that do not share a males genes it contributes to the survival or rivals genes leaving the father with less resources to invest in his own offspring - men who avoid cuckoldry are more reproductively successful
• avoiding cuckoldery ensures better survival of the males genes
• psychological mechanisms have evolved in males such as sexual jealousy and possessive behavior. These help avoid cuckoldery and improve chances of passing genes on to the next generation. This leads to males using aggressive strategies to retain partners and prevent them from infidelity
• direct guarding involves excessive male vigilance towards the partners behavior such as checking who they have been seeing and keeping tabs on their whereabouts
• negative inducement involves issuing threats of dire consequences for infidelity such as threatening to hurt the partner if they are unfaithful
• Wilson and Daly identified several male retention strategies that pave the way for aggression
• bullying occurrs because of a power imbalance - a more powerful individual uses aggression deliberately and repeatedly against a weaker person. Researchers have traditionally viewed bullying to be a maladaptive behavior, for example as the result of poor social skills or childhood abuse.
• our evolutionary ancestors may have used bullying as an adaptive strategy to increase chances of survival
• for example bullying helps acquire resources and look after themselves and their offspring/mates creating more opportunities for reproduction and passing on genes
• Volk et al argued that characteristics associated with bullying behavior are attractive to the opposite sex. In mates it suggests dominance and the ability to acquire resources and ward of rivals. Therefore such aggression would be inherited as it would lead to greater reproductive success