Lack of Communication/Assumptions Lead to War

Aside from the disastrous and questionable Syracuse Expedition, something that caught my eye was how the fragile peace that was the Fifty Year Peace came to an abrupt end because of the assumption of several city-states (not to mention their lack of communication). Sure the Spartans kind of messed up by not being able to immediately meet their side of the peace treaty, and sure they panicked and rushed into an alliance with Boeotia(who are just really really crappy people), but wow do things spiral out of control really fast. Then the Argives assumed it was about to go down and just sent things into a spiral. However, it seems like this always happens. Look at World War I. Or the Cold War. Look at how assumptions and lack of communication turned both those conflicts deadly (and in the case of the Cold War, nearly thermonuclear). Is this just human nature?