Pinker, Steven2015-03-112013Pinker, Steven. 2013. The Decline of War and Conceptions of Human Nature. International Studies Review 15, no. 3: 400-405.1521-94881468-2486http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:14117754Many observers are skeptical of the evidence that war has declined, because they think that a decline in war requires an unrealistic, romantic theory of human nature. In fact it is compatible with a hardheaded view of human violent inclinations which is firmly rooted in evolutionary biology. Homo sapiens evolved with violent tendencies, but they are triggered by particular circumstances; they are not a hydraulic urge that must periodically be discharged. And though our species evolved with motives that can erupt in violence, it also evolved motives that can inhibit violence, including self-control, empathy, a sense of fairness, and open-ended cognitive mechanisms that can devise technologies for reducing violence.en-USJournal Article2015-03-1110.1111/misr.12031