"Over evolutionary time, that benefit had to be in the coin of reproductive success."
Of course, such benefit was required for behavioral evolution, in this case a willingness to join as a combatant, to occur. Eventually however, because of the enforcement of monogamy within societies, acquiring more wives became culturally unacceptable and other less direct correlates of reproductive success were substituted as rewards. In South Carolina during the American Revolution, Rebel recruitment was facilitated by promises of land grants and of slaves confiscated from Tories after victory, both of which would have improved the combatant's prospect of a larger family size. Or, as in present-day Russia, the incentive is given prior to victory as an enlistment bonus of considerable size that perhaps enhances the combatant's marriage prospects, as martial glory probably would as well.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11186-025-09620-8?utm_source=rct_congratemailt&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=oa_20250508&utm_content=10.1007%2Fs11186-025-09620-8
A nice example of how evolutionary arguments can be mathematized see link for our paper
Which is one of reasons why the evolutionary model of the actor is a good social science theory!
"Over evolutionary time, that benefit had to be in the coin of reproductive success."
Of course, such benefit was required for behavioral evolution, in this case a willingness to join as a combatant, to occur. Eventually however, because of the enforcement of monogamy within societies, acquiring more wives became culturally unacceptable and other less direct correlates of reproductive success were substituted as rewards. In South Carolina during the American Revolution, Rebel recruitment was facilitated by promises of land grants and of slaves confiscated from Tories after victory, both of which would have improved the combatant's prospect of a larger family size. Or, as in present-day Russia, the incentive is given prior to victory as an enlistment bonus of considerable size that perhaps enhances the combatant's marriage prospects, as martial glory probably would as well.