You probably think the world is going to hell. Honestly, it’s hard not to. Between the 24-hour news cycle screaming about local tragedies and the very real global tensions we see on our feeds, the "vibes" of 2026 feel pretty violent. But if you’ve ever sat down with Steven Pinker's massive 800-page book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, you’ve encountered a thesis that basically tells you your eyes are lying to you.
Pinker, a Harvard cognitive psychologist, dropped this bombshell in 2011, and we’re still arguing about it today. His claim? That we are actually living in the most peaceful era in the history of our species.
It sounds crazy. You look at a headline and think, "How can this guy say that?" But Pinker isn’t just guessing. He uses a mountain of data—graphs, charts, and historical records—to show that if you look at the percentage of people dying from violence rather than just the raw numbers, the trend line has been heading down for centuries.
The Core Argument: Six Trends of Peace
Pinker doesn't just say "things are better" and leave it there. He breaks it down into specific historical movements. He calls them the Six Trends.
First, there’s the Pacification Process. This happened over millennia as humans moved from hunter-gatherer societies to organized agricultural states. In the "anarchy" of early tribes, the chance of dying a violent death was around 15%. Once states took a "monopoly on force" (what he calls the Leviathan effect), that number plummeted.
Then you have the Civilizing Process. Think back to the Middle Ages. People used to stab each other over dinner table insults. Today, we have "manners." Between the late Middle Ages and the 20th century, European homicide rates dropped by a factor of ten to fifty. We literally learned to control our impulses.
The Humanitarian Revolution followed in the 17th and 18th centuries. This is when we decided that things like slavery, judicial torture, and superstitious killing (like witch hunts) were actually, you know, bad.
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Then there’s the Long Peace after World War II, where major powers stopped fighting each other directly. This led into the New Peace after the Cold War, where even civil wars and genocides started to decline globally. Finally, we have the Rights Revolutions—the ongoing push for the rights of women, children, and minorities.
Why Do We Still Feel Like the World is Violent?
If the data is so clear, why do we feel so unsafe? Pinker blames our own brains. Specifically, something called the Availability Heuristic.
Basically, our minds estimate how likely something is based on how easily we can remember an example of it. A plane crash is more memorable than a thousand safe landings. A school shooting is more "available" to your memory than the millions of kids who went to school and came home safely today.
"No matter how small the percentage of violent deaths may be, in absolute numbers there will always be enough of them to fill the evening news." — Steven Pinker
In 2026, this is even worse. Social media algorithms thrive on outrage and fear. You’re not going to see a viral TikTok about a town in Sweden that had zero murders this year. You’re going to see the one video of a fight in a subway. Our "better angels" are constantly being drowned out by the noise of our "inner demons."
The Five Inner Demons and Four Better Angels
Pinker’s work isn't just a history book; it's a psychology book. He argues that our nature is a tug-of-war.
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On one side, we have our Inner Demons:
- Predation: Using violence as a means to an end (I want your stuff).
- Dominance: The urge to be "alpha" or have prestige.
- Revenge: The moralistic urge to punish.
- Sadism: Taking pleasure in someone else’s pain (luckily, Pinker says this is rare).
- Ideology: The most dangerous one. People killing in the name of a "higher good" or a utopia.
On the other side, we have our Better Angels:
- Empathy: Feeling the pain of others.
- Self-Control: The ability to think about the future and not act on impulse.
- The Moral Sense: Norms and rules about fairness.
- Reason: Using logic to realize that violence is a zero-sum game.
The big takeaway? Human nature hasn't changed. We aren't "evolving" biologically to be nicer. Instead, our modern world—with its trade, its literacy, and its laws—has created an environment that rewards our better angels and punishes our demons.
The Critics: Is Pinker Just an Optimist?
Not everyone is buying it. Critics like Ingo Piepers or the historians behind the book The Darker Angels argue that Pinker is cherry-picking data.
One big criticism is that Pinker focuses on proportions rather than absolute numbers. If 1,000 people die in a tribe of 5,000, that’s a 20% death rate. If 1,000,000 people die in a world of 8 billion, the percentage is tiny—but a million people are still dead. Critics argue that our capacity for mass destruction (like nuclear weapons) makes modern peace incredibly fragile.
Others point out that Pinker’s "Long Peace" might just be a lucky break. Just because we haven't had World War III yet doesn't mean the "system" is more peaceful; it might just mean the reset button hasn't been hit in a while.
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There's also the "Mass Incarceration" critique. Some argue that crime went down because we locked millions of people in cages, which is just a different form of state violence. Pinker's response is usually that while the system is flawed, it's still better than the blood feuds of the past.
Practical Insights: How to Use This Knowledge
Reading The Better Angels of Our Nature shouldn't make you complacent. It should make you realize that progress is possible, but it’s not inevitable. It’s something we have to maintain.
Stop doomscrolling. Recognize that your feed is curated to show you the exceptions, not the rules. When you see a tragedy, ask yourself: Is this a global trend, or a horrific outlier?
Support the "Leviathan." Peace depends on stable, fair governments. When institutions crumble, the "pacification process" reverses. This is why rule of law and anti-corruption efforts are so vital for a non-violent future.
Lean into trade and interconnection. Pinker shows that when it’s cheaper to buy things from your neighbor than to steal them (and when your neighbor’s prosperity helps yours), you’re less likely to go to war. This "Gentle Commerce" is one of our strongest shields against conflict.
Broaden your circle of empathy. Literacy and travel have done more for peace than almost anything else. By reading stories from people who don't look like you or live like you, you make it harder for your "inner demons" to view them as enemies.
The decline of violence isn't a guarantee of a peaceful future. It's a reminder that we’ve solved these problems before. We just have to keep choosing the angels over the demons.
Next Steps for You:
Check out the UCDP (Uppsala Conflict Data Program) website. It’s one of the sources Pinker uses. You can see real-time data on global conflicts and see for yourself if the trends are moving in the direction he claims. Also, try keeping a "good news" log for a week—write down one example of cooperation or progress you see each day to balance out the headlines.