When you've had a rough day, it's easy to get annoyed at a simple slight from someone. In some cases, this could end badly in a violent confrontation.
According to The Conversation, this is because a cognitive mechanism is triggered that is known as "hostile attribution bias." Unfortunately, rising temperatures are also contributing to an increase in violent conflicts.
What's happening?
When communities experience heatwaves, droughts, or hurricanes, those events can lead to hostile attribution bias. Extreme weather stresses out communities, and people go into survival mode, believing the other side is deliberately harming them.
Forensic psychological research initially found this correlation. Other studies provide evidence for its initial finding that rising temperatures are linked to a rise in violent behavior.
For example, a study in South Korea found that "the risk of assault deaths increased by 1.4% for every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in ambient temperature," per The Conversation. The researchers observed assaults between 1991 and 2020.
The Conversation also stated that a 2017 study in Finland found a correlation. It found there was a 1.7% increase in violent crimes for every 1 degree Celsius rise in ambient temperature.
Why is the link between rising temperatures and rising violent crime concerning?
Hostile attribution bias isn't anything new. In fact, a study from Cambridge University suggested that it goes way back in time.
The Conversation mentioned this instance of extreme weather contributing to violence back in the 4th century as well. At that time, Britain experienced multiple droughts that caused famine. The country was ruled by the Romans, and it resulted in the Saxon, Scotti, and Pict tribes charging Hadrian's Wall.
The study looked at 106 battles across the Roman Empire. It found that many others besides the charging mentioned above happened around times of drought.
Droughts and storms have always happened. Unfortunately, the rising temperatures are intensifying extreme weather events. And our reliance on dirty, polluting energy sources, such as oil, gas, and coal, is what's warming the planet.
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According to The Conversation, "taking measures that reduce the mental burden of climate stress can also help preserve the cognitive resources needed for peaceful resolution."
Nepal is a great example of a peaceful resolution because communities negotiated resources.
"Dhankuta pays for the water services — treatment, storage and distribution — to the upstream watershed villages of Nibuwa and Tankhuwa," The Conversation stated.
Human aggression linked to rising temperatures is a complex climate issue that needs further exploration to better understand how to combat it.
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