Believe it or not, we are getting smarter ― and, as a direct result, less violent, argues Steven Pinker in a Comment in Nature this week, which is adapted from his new book "The Better Angels of our Nature- Why Violence has Declined"

        Even though it may feel as if we are constantly surrounded by violence, previous centuries had it much worse — then, collapsing empires, horse-tribe invasions, slave trades and annihilations of native peoples were not unusual. Life before civilization was even bloodier. Estimates suggest that about 15% of people living in non-state societies died violently — five times the proportion of violent deaths in the twentieth century from war, genocide and man-made famines combined.

        Pinker argues that increases in reason — represented by rising scores in tests of abstract reasoning, among other factors — have helped people to adopt the avoidance of harm as a general goal. “Only gradually, with the appearance of literacy, cities and long-distance travel and communication, could our ancestors cultivate their reason and apply it to a broader range of concerns,” Pinker writes. “As collective rationality is honed over the ages, it will clamp down on short-sighted and hot-blooded impulses toward violence, and force us to treat a greater number of agents as we would have them treat us.”