ANGER, AGGRESSION, AND HUMOR IN NEWFOUNDLAND FLOOR HOCKEY - AN EVOLUTIONARY ANALYSIS

This paper examines patterns of anger, aggression, and humor during 95 floor hockey games in a small fishing village in Newfoundland. The ob served behaviors meet the prediction, based on evolutionary theory, th at anger and aggression will be more frequent among males at the age w hen mate competition is most intense. Aggression was also found to be combined with humor most frequently in interactions among players atte mpting to form social relationships. This last finding is consistent w ith the hypothesis that combining humor (smiling and laughing) with wh at would otherwise be interpreted as aggressive behavior is a means of establishing trusting relationships between individuals. The potentia l contribution of an evolutionary approach to studies of anger and agg ression is discussed.