Question

How does human population growth affect stress and conflict?

Answer 1

See explanation: this is in no way any form of accepted definition but more of an opinion and observation.

Explanation:

I remember watching a documentary on the television many years ago about the behaviour of rats in a confined maze. Over a period of time more rats were gradually introduced. As the numbers increased the tolerance of one rat to the close proximity of another became markedly less. This would obviously increase stress levels throughout the population of rats in that maze. Eventually the ever increasing number of rats triggered a flip from wariness of other rats to that of very aggressive violent responses.

I have told many of those close to me about this experiment so they know exactly what I mean when I state the words 'rat syndrome'.

Over the years I have seen this very same scenario occur with people. This implies that there is a very strong correlation between the 'rat experiment' and the reality of human population growth.

Another point to consider is competition for resources. As the population increases the demand on resources also increases. If this demand for essential resources reaches criticality then some form of adverse reaction occurs. This can be range from personal scale to national scale.