A Hormonal Interpretation of Collins's Micro‐sociological Theory of Violence

Abstract

Collins (2008) provides a grand theory that unifies all forms of human violence occurring in face‐to‐face situations, ranging from spousal abuse to medieval warfare. Laitin (2008) appreciates Collins's microscopic analysis of diverse data but points to important shortcomings in the theory, especially Collins's metaphoric explanations that are not testable. Here Collins's theory is merged with an existing biosocial model of dominance, replacing the metaphors with tangible, measurable hormonal mechanisms.