Spite is common among many animals.

Question

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The statement under consideration is: 'Spite is common among many animals.' The two answer options are:
- True
- False

Option 1: True
- A common-sense reading might suggest that animals sometimes act to hurt others without apparent benefit, which could be interpreted as spite. However, in scientific terms, many such behaviors are better explained by alternative motives such as competition, misdirected aggression, or selfish genetic strategies rather than genuine spite. Spite implies a costly action toward another at a potential personal cost with no clear benefit to the actor, and proving this in animals is difficult because researchers must rule out benefits or mistaken interpretations of the behavior.
- Additionally, what looks like spite could often be understood through evolutionary explanations like resource defense, social dynamics, or inadvertent harm from normal aggressive or submissive interactions. Therefore, labeling spite as common across many species overstates the available evidence and oversimplifies the diverse motivational landscapes observed in animal behavior.

Option 2: False
- This option aligns with current behavioral science views, which generally treat spite as a rare or controversial attribution rather than a widespread phenomenon. Demonstrating genuine spite requires showing that the action reduces another’s fitness while also not increasing the actor’s own fitness, which is a stringent condition that is not routinely satisfied in natural observations. Many scientists prefer to categorize such actions under well-supported explanations like competition, territory defense, or coercive social strategies, rather than attributing them to spite.
- In short, the claim that spite is common across many animals conflicts with the nuanced understanding that animal behavior tends to be explained by functional motives with measurable consequences, rather than by an abstract human-like notion of spite being widespread.

Summary of reasoning across options
- The 'True' option risks conflating observed antagonistic interactions with the specific, costly, spiteful motive that lacks obvious benefit, which is rarely demonstrated in comparative studies.
- The 'False' option more accurately captures the cautious interpretation most researchers adopt, acknowledging that spite is not broadly evidenced as a common, across-species phenomenon.

Overall, evaluating the evidence suggests the statement is not supported by broad, consistent findings in animal behavior, supporting the interpretation that the claim is false.

ANTH 1050-090 Fall 2025 Exam 2

Spite is common among many animals.

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