Unless two adversaries are locked in a fight to the death, aggression is not zero-sum but negative-sum; they are collectively better off not doing it, despite the advantage to the victor.
Untrue unless you’re in a non-sequential game
The advantage to a conqueror in gaining a bit more land is swamped by the disadvantage to the family he kills in stealing it, and the few moments of drive reduction experienced by a rapist are obscenely out of proportion to the suffering he causes his victim.
True under a utilitarian framework and with a few common mind-theoretic assumptions derived from intuitions stemming from most people’s empathy
The asymmetry is ultimately a consequence of the law of entropy: an infinitesimal fraction of the states of the universe are orderly enough to support life and happiness, so it’s easier to destroy and cause misery than to cultivate and cause happiness.
Untrue unless you’re in a non-sequential game
True under a utilitarian framework and with a few common mind-theoretic assumptions derived from intuitions stemming from most people’s empathy
Woo