Warfighting at scale is not a clear example of preference inversion. Humans are adaptation executers, not fitness maximizers. The interaction of testosterone and dominant behavior in humans is complicated but probably real. There is some cross-cultural and even cross-species evidence that young primate males value aggression and risk-taking and conflict. There is some reproductive value available in warfighting—according to The Psychological Diversity of Mankind, 16 million men in central Asia are direct descendants of Genghis Khan.
This doesn’t have to literally mean that there are genes for warfighting on the Y chromosome. A lower bandwidth solution for evolution is to have boys preferentially mimic the values of father figures and high status males, for example. See Evolution provides no evidence for the Sharp Left Turn for discussion of culture bypassing genetic bandwidth limitations. Or both things could be true. However it happens, boys often play soldiers. If that’s a non-intrinsic preference, I’m not sure what an intrinsic preference would be.
Warfighting at scale is not a clear example of preference inversion. Humans are adaptation executers, not fitness maximizers. The interaction of testosterone and dominant behavior in humans is complicated but probably real. There is some cross-cultural and even cross-species evidence that young primate males value aggression and risk-taking and conflict. There is some reproductive value available in warfighting—according to The Psychological Diversity of Mankind, 16 million men in central Asia are direct descendants of Genghis Khan.
This doesn’t have to literally mean that there are genes for warfighting on the Y chromosome. A lower bandwidth solution for evolution is to have boys preferentially mimic the values of father figures and high status males, for example. See Evolution provides no evidence for the Sharp Left Turn for discussion of culture bypassing genetic bandwidth limitations. Or both things could be true. However it happens, boys often play soldiers. If that’s a non-intrinsic preference, I’m not sure what an intrinsic preference would be.