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Overview

Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (2012) is a book about how violence has decreased over time. Despite the fact that we live in an age where there are more news stories about violence than ever before, people have become less violent over time. This trend becomes clear when you look at statistics and not just historical narratives written by historians who choose to focus on the worst aspects of society.

Violence has decreased significantly since the Second World War. Wars between countries have become less frequent, and when they do happen, they are not as deadly as wars in earlier centuries. Civil wars, genocides and terrorism have also become less prevalent and more infrequent.

Despite some high-profile incidents, such as the Rwandan genocide and the September 11 attacks, humanity has also seen a sharp decline in small-scale violence since World War II. The number of people who are subjected to violence by their spouses or other members of society has decreased because women have more rights today than they did before and more people recognize that fact.

Given the decrease in violence across the world, not just one but many categories, it’s tempting to believe that something has changed in human psychology. However, humans are just as prone to want to act violently against others as they ever were. Humans have evolved like other mammals and use violence when threatened. But humans also possess a capacity for weighing consequences of violence and over centuries have put reason into social institutions so we don’t resort to violent behavior.

One of the reasons that there is so much violence in today’s society is because people aren’t thinking rationally. A reason-based society will be able to address the root causes of violence, like poverty and political differences, so that violent acts are unnecessary. As we become more rational as a society, we can expect rates of violence to continue to fall.

Key Point 1: Despite common perceptions to the contrary, human society has become less, and not more violent over time.

When considering the violence in today’s world, it can be hard to appreciate that other times were far more violent. However, thorough analysis of historical statistics suggests that humans are less violent than ever before and will continue to get less violent into the future.

Since Steven Pinker’s book, The Better Angels of Our Nature was published in 2011, the world has become both more and less violent. According to a study by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), an Australian think tank that quantifies levels of peace and violence around the world, 92 countries have become more violent since 2017 while only 71 countries became more peaceful. However, while there is some evidence that shows that the world may be getting worse in terms of violence, it also shows us that we are becoming less warlike than ever before. As a proportion of GDP spent on military spending fell in almost 120 countries between 2008 and 2018. Short-term changes should not alter people’s overall perspective on centuries long trends shaping our world though as IEP notes in its report “the deterioration in peacefulness runs contrary to longer term trend”

Key Point 2: Government emerged in human society largely to guarantee people’s safety.

People began to settle down and live in cities, despite the fact that it was a major step back from nomadic life. The reason may be that people considered the benefits of living under one government more important than their standards of living. Studies show that hunter-gatherer societies today are much less violent than those who settled down into urban areas.