The History Of Violence: From The Stone Age To The Present Day 

People refuse to believe it when I tell them we live in the most peaceful and safest time in history.

I live in rural USA and I am shocked how many of my neighbors are afraid of the violence in some big cities, like it is happening right here among us. Could it be that "news" outlets are amplifying things for nefarious reasons?

You once said that just because you're a psychologist doesn't mean you're the kind that makes people feel better. Sorry, Steven, this made me feel better.

An optimist believes we are living in the best of times. A pessimist fears that this is true.

I wish I could make similar observations about the modern decline of violence as a South African. Sadly we suffer from a persistently high crime rate.

Game theory shows that cooperation for mutual benefit is the superior strategy.

I agree, even with all the apparent craziness, we are living in a golden age. A nitpick: domestic violence happens to men as well and is largely unreported.

I think the overall rise in better economic conditions over the past centuries is a large factor in the decrease in violence. When people have less struggle for food, shelter and clothing, there is an overall decline in violence. This is about the big long-term picture as there are many instances that would seem to contradict the general picture.

Excellent! Thank you.

Steven is a really cool dude.

This scaling down of violence over the centuries goes to show the effectiveness of law and order. And yet, we've never been closer to midnight on the doomsday clock.

People don't have to be violent, but they are. This can never dissappear. Where do you fit in? The whole of societies have to change.

Better Angels of Our Nature is a great book with some glaring missteps, notably on the purpose of terrorism and islamism. Pinker states that terrorism is self-defeating and at the same time that Gavrilo Princip (a terrorist) was the person that most influenced the course of the 20th century. Right before the rise of Isis, the book states that there is no sign of extremism in the now-failed Arab spring. Rather than lowering the value of the book, these examples show how blinding cultural biases can be, making it twice as useful.

Let see how it all works out now we're well into the realm of breached ecological planetary boundaries with associated resource scarcity and trends towards totalitarianism - those graphs look more like volatility than trustworthy trends

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined is a great book. Read it. Thanks!

I agree that we are in relatively peaceful times. I still feel that here are forces of aggression and people who are aggressive that still want to promote aggressiveness. It's a tug-of-war. If society doesn't properly explain altruism and kindness, the trends could start skewing another way. Also, not every instance or idea of aggression gets documented. Sometimes it can be a mindset. So, it matters that a society promote altruism directly. In modern societies, people have become more secular and we don't have the same moral explanations that previous cultures had. This means the minds of modern people, especially young people, are up for grabs. Like I said, people who are aggressive promote aggressiveness, because it is self-serving and to also teach others to tolerate aggression, but on the other hand, this aggression could be used against people who are innocent. So, it really is about competing interests. We are for the most part peaceful, but I actually think things coule be even more peaceful, and also things could get worse if we don't pay attention to trends.

If our perceptions are so wrong, and our perceptions are driven by information from the media we consume, shouldn’t we make more strict rules about the operation of media?

Although a caveat of being in an era of world political modernity is when moral panics take hold of populations. This may result in psychological harms as a form of entrenched ostracism. This correlation may be due to national forms of moral realism within complex interdependent international institutions that construct forms of national identity.

Richard Wrangham, anthropologist and primatologist, has some very interesting thoughts regarding the violent behavior of modern humans and their closest living genetic relatives - chimps … - …

Resources, its all about abundant resources. Humans with full bellies and warm cozy homes are not particularly hostile. You can thank free market capitalism's industrial revolution for that.

😊😊😊

His book was released before the Russian/ Ukraine war and Israel/ West Bank war. Overall I concur however. Life in the Middle Ages were living hell for the average person

Fighting for Survival is not violence . Violence is an act of physical confrontation, sometimes planned , sometimes inevitable. Violence is cruelty just for the sake of cruelty .

@Steven Pinker many people claim to debunk your claims could you please do a full length discussion of the statistical criticisms of this chapter.

I gave up at 4:27, I just can't take that abomination any more ...

GREAT! (wasn't really from the stone age though)

Just a thought here. One of the greatest accomplishments that made life less violent was the enlightenment. In 2024, the values of the enlightenment are under threat to a greater degree than perhaps since about 1939. We are at a critical junction in history right now. I hope the values of the enlightenment ultimately prevail.

We live on a planet where almost all beings must kill, exploit or out-compete other beings - or we die. Today, most of us do our killing and exploiting as a group. This allows us to maintain our genteel facade. The groups that succeed the best are those that are most internally cooperative. That is the reason for the trend towards less homicide. Divided or internally violent groups will tend to be out-competed by more cohesive groups that are otherwise about equal in power.

If you really want to be honest when saying there is no debate in the decline of the rate of homicide you will have to account for missing persons in your number.

Violence is a fact of life. Even the plants fight each other.

is this official channel?

the present day is violence on social media in my country spain it has increased a lot since this year. But is a new phenomenon where podcasters are referencing one another and topics of the news anti feminism and other things

Russia enters the chat....

A marketeers, not a scientist

Interesting that you do not mention abortus provocatus which is a form of violence against humans

The 21th century is the beth!

Steven Pinker,...an apologist for Hell & Dystopia, using statistics.

How funny that you don't mention economic violence

Let's examine a tiny sliver of our history and draw sweeping conclusions about them. Yawn.

I can readily agree that most humans are "good". However, that does not apply to the leaders of countries or peoples.... two examples being Putin in Russia and Netanyahu in Israel. If it were up to the average citizen of each country conflict might either have been avoided, or alternatively brought to an end by now.

Pinker's argument may be right but he doesn't have the evidence to back it up. Data on crime levels before the 19th century are poor. He doesn't distinguish between violence within societies (ie crime) and violence between societies (war). He also fails to note that the biggest factor against war is democracy; democracies don't fight each other.

Steven Pinker likes to cherry pick data. For a complete history of humans, violence, and war I recommend On Wars by Michael Mann. He does an excellent job looking at all of the evidence or lack of.

How handy all your info is for those who wish to put us all in boxes and enjoy eating bugs and owning nothing and enjoying it. The only pattern I see is your commitment to your financial backers.

Your completely wrong, the only person who understands the history of violence from the stone age to the present day is Pamela Smith who lives at 23 east Wallace street in trailer lot 17 in Bumblesburg Utah, But because the stamp act only allows people from Oxford to publish History, we will forever be lost in incorrect historical interpretation.

No, i dont know war, not everyone is the same thats why i hate old people still wanting to be right even if it is wrong.