The article tests theories that may explain why warfare frequency varies from society to society. The focus is on ecological problems, particularly different kinds of resource scarcity, but social and psychological theories are also tested with both bivariate and multivariate analyses. Because unpredictable disasters are such a strong predictor in nonstate societies, the authors theorize that war may mostly be caused by a fear of nature.

Derived from the fear of supernatural punishment hypothesis, this paper explores whether the prosocial attitude of a group or individuals will increase with the threat of punishment from a high god or visible supernatural agent, such as sorcerers and witches. The author found that fear of supernatural punishment did not affect prosocial behavior and suggested that religious beliefs may give rise to institutions with the task of enforcing social compliance rather than direct control.

This article offers a behavioral ecological approach to the study of child training practicies. Gender differences in child training are discussed in light of evolutionary theory, and the author suggests training is likely tailored to promote the reproductive success of each gender. Generally, boys are trained to be more aggressive, stronger, and self-reliant; girls are trained to be more hard-working, responsible, obedient, and sexually restrained. Gender differences in child training frequently vary with degree of polygyny and/or social stratification in a society.

This paper reviews the results of the author's cross-cultural studies of war and aggression and their implications for prehistory.

This paper seeks to understand how the conflict resolution strategies of indigenous and non-indigenous groups differ in their efficacy. The authors suggest that indigenous methods of conflict resolution are more effective than non-indigenous methods by demonstrating that subjects from the Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM) associated with indigenous conflict management (ICM) will co-occur less frequently with OCM terms related to conflict than subjects related to non-ICM. They tested this by selecting OCM subjects that they felt best represented ICM, non-ICM, and instances of conflict and using chi-square tests to show how often these subjects co-occurred. They subsequently split up the "conflict" variable into four forms of conflict in order to show whether any of these forms might be more frequently found associated with ICM or non-ICM subjects. The results showed that conflict subjects were more likely to co-occur with non-ICM subjects, and that sociocultural/interpersonal conflicts were more likely to be associated with ICM subjects, whereas political conflicts were more likely to be associated with non-ICM subjects.

Research sampled 143 societies from the Standard Cross Cultural Sample to test the relationship between honor culture, social rewards for warriors, and intergroup conflicts. Using mediation analysis based on multiple regression, and structural equation modeling, the research supported the theory that honor culture was positively associated with intergroup conflict, and that this relationship was mediated by social rewards for warriors.

What causes people to trust or distrust others? Through a multi-level empirical analysis, the authors of this article find that societies with historical exposure to infectious diseases will tend to minimize contact with contaminated out-groups while strengthening in-group relationships to manage infections, thus developing a lower radius of trust.

Authors look for associations between the gender of children and several dimensions of socialization anxiety.

This article focuses on the culture of honor hypothesis, which suggests the distinctive selective pressures of horticultural and pastoral subsistences on culture. The authors explore which cultural evolution model best explains the variations suggested by the culture of honor hypothesis: the memetic, evolutionary psychological, dual inheritance, or niche construction model. The authors use the eHRAF database to test these rival models and explore how human psychology has adapted to pastoral and horticultural environments. The results support that it is more common for pastoral societies to show a reactive psychological phenotype. After considering their analysis and the distinct cases, the authors conclude that the niche construction is the best model to explain their results. They also emphasize the importance of continuing empirical analyses to test these models.

This study reanalyzes the work of Barry, Bacon and Child (1957) on sex differences in child socialization. The authors use factor analysis to determine if the results of the original study are consistent with results yielded using modern methods and computer analysis. Authors find that there is no one general dimension of male-female difference in socialization and that the conclusions of Barry, Bacon, and Child have little meaning.