The APA Monitor American Psychological Association Vol. 18, No. 10 October 1987 Council endorses Seville Statement on Violence by Susan Landers Monitor Staff New York The Seville Statement on Violence - a document that seeks to wipe out any belief that humans have inherited a tendency to make war from our animal ancestors, was unanimously endorsed by the APA Council of Representatives at its August meeting here. APA President-elect Ray Fowler announced the vote at a press conference during the recent APA convention. The statement was drafted by an international ad hoc committee of 20 psychologists, anthropologists and biochemists meeting in Seville, Spain, for the Sixth International Colloquium on Brain and Aggression in 1986. Leading the press conference was David Adams, corresponding secretary for the Support Network of the Seville Statement on Violence and a professor of psychology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. Adams, who coordinates effort to have the statement endorsed by organizations around the world, said surveys in Finland, Great Britain and the United States indicate that a large number of young people believe that war is intrinsic to human nature. To counteract those beliefs, the statement declares it is scientifically inaccurate to say that war is genetically programmed into human nature; that in the course of human evolution there has been a selection for aggressive behavior more than for other kinds of behavior; that humans have a "violent brain"; or that war is caused by instinct or any single motivation. The Seville Statement was brought to APA's attention by Neal Miller, professor of psychology at Yale University, who wrote to the Board of Scientific Affairs (BSA) in February urging the association's endorsement of the statement. Miller wrote, "Although human nature certainly does contain innate factors that can lead to violence, psychological evidence on the modification and redirection of anger and anthropological evidence that different societies have lived together peacefully in some cases without any weapons of warfare, shows that wars are not an inevitable consequence of human nature" BSA and the Board of Social and Ethical Responsibility for Psychology (BSERP) voted to endorse the statement. The BSERP vote was unanimous. In urging Council to follow suit, BSA wrote, "The document is not attempting to address the issue of inherited behavioral traits leading to violence and war in a scholarly manner, but is instead a social science statement analogous to similar statements on race that were circulated all over the world several decades ago." Also appearing in support of the statement at the press conference were Paul Kimmel, representing APA's Division 9 (The Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues); Ethel Tobach, curator at the American Museum of Natural History, representing Psychologists for Social Responsibility; Rowell Huesmann, professor of psychology at the University of Illinois in Chicago and executive secretary of the International Society for Research on Aggression; Jo Groebel director-at-large of the International Council of Psychologists; and Seymour Feshbach, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles. The press conference panelists said they plan to disseminate the statement widely and to work to have it included in texbooks.