Nature versus nurture -- a surprising lesson from primates

A long article, but one of the most fascinating I've bumped across in a long while, is this study of violence versus sociability in various primates. Behaviors that biologists had long thought were specific to some species turn out to be both learned and malliable, and transmissible over long periods of time. The article is overtly interested in the significance of these findings for human behavior, especially the inclination to war, but one can easily imagine an extension to even a finer scale of human behavior -- whether bullying or "civilized" behavior is expected from menfolks, whether words or guns are an appropriate response to perceived antagonism, even whether people are more competitive or cooperative. But really, just the animal stuff is very cool on its own. Worth a lunchtime read.

(via Follow Me Here)