ABSTRACT
Evolutionary theory suggests of course a degree of continuity between humans and other species: on the other hand humans have a number of unique characteristics which may necessitate caution in extending the results of animal studies to human violence. Wherever possible work on other species should be repeated with the human subjects. However the nature of the subject matter makes it an ethically impossible to directly replicate some of the animal work on human subjects, and often experiments can only be replicated on humans if they are considerably toned down: the electric shock of an animal experiment may be replaced by a harsh criticism from an experimenter, for example. Similarly the aggression itself may be exhibited in only a mild form compared to the animal experiments, for example telling stories with a higher violence content on a projective test, or hitting a life-size rubber doll.
