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Putting revenge and forgiveness in an evolutionary context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2012

Michael E. McCullough ,
Robert Kurzban  and
Benjamin A. Tabak
Michael E. McCullough
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124-0751. mikem@miami.eduhttp://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccullough
Robert Kurzban
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. kurzban@psych.upenn.eduhttp://www.psych.upenn.edu/~kurzban/ Economic Science Institute, Chapman University, Orange, CA 92866
Benjamin A. Tabak
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of California–Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563. btabak@psych.ucla.edu
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Abstract

In this response, we address eight issues concerning our proposal that human minds contain adaptations for revenge and forgiveness. Specifically, we discuss (a) the inferences that are and are not licensed by patterns of contemporary behavioral data in the context of the adaptationist approach; (b) the theoretical pitfalls of conflating proximate and ultimate causation; (c) the role of development in the production of adaptations; (d) the implications of proposing that the brain's cognitive systems are fundamentally computational in nature; (e) our preferred method for considering the role of individual differences in computational systems; (f) applications of our proposal to understanding conflicts between groups; (g) the possible implications of our views for understanding the operation of contemporary criminal justice systems; and (h) the question of whether people ever “genuinely” forgive.

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Type
Authors' Response
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , February 2013 , pp. 41 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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