Abstract
The parasite-stress theory of values offers new perspectives and research directions for the study of interpersonal violence, and provides a theoretical and empirically synthetic foundation that promises to be more encompassing than those used by previous interpersonal-violence researchers. Evidence indicates that parasite stress may be the strongest predictor of rates of interpersonal violence to date. We argue that collectivist values evoked by high parasite stress account for the culture of honor and cause adult-on-adult interpersonal violence. Across the US states, parasite stress and collectivism each positively predict rates of men’s and women’s slaying of a romantic partner, as well as the rate of male-honor homicide and of felony-related homicide. Parasite stress and collectivism also positively predict international rates of overall homicide. Child maltreatment by caretakers is caused, in part, by divestment in offspring of low phenotypic quality, and high parasite stress produces more such offspring than low parasite stress. Rates of child maltreatment across the US states are predicted positively by parasite stress. Infectious diseases that can be transmitted human-to-human (nonzoonotic diseases) are stronger predictors of interpersonal violence than are zoonotic human diseases. The parasite-stress theory of values may be useful in reducing rates of interpersonal violence across the world and informs the other major category of violence, intergroup violence, or warfare (see Chap. 12).
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Thornhill, R., Fincher, C.L. (2014). Interpersonal Violence. In: The Parasite-Stress Theory of Values and Sociality. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08040-6_8
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