Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T21:24:57.117Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Revenge without redundancy: Functional outcomes do not require discrete adaptations for vengeance or forgiveness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2012

Colin Holbrook ,
Daniel M. T. Fessler  and
Matthew M. Gervais
Colin Holbrook
Affiliation:
Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture and Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553. cholbrook01@ucla.eduhttp://cholbrook01.bol.ucla.edu/dfessler@anthro.ucla.eduhttp://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/fessler/mgervais@ucla.eduhttp://www.anthro.ucla.edu/people/grad-pages?lid=4411
Daniel M. T. Fessler
Affiliation:
Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture and Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553. cholbrook01@ucla.eduhttp://cholbrook01.bol.ucla.edu/dfessler@anthro.ucla.eduhttp://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/fessler/mgervais@ucla.eduhttp://www.anthro.ucla.edu/people/grad-pages?lid=4411
Matthew M. Gervais
Affiliation:
Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture and Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553. cholbrook01@ucla.eduhttp://cholbrook01.bol.ucla.edu/dfessler@anthro.ucla.eduhttp://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/fessler/mgervais@ucla.eduhttp://www.anthro.ucla.edu/people/grad-pages?lid=4411
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We question whether the postulated revenge and forgiveness systems constitute true adaptations. Revenge and forgiveness are the products of multiple motivational systems and capacities, many of which did not exclusively evolve to support deterrence. Anger is more aptly construed as an adaptation that organizes independent mechanisms to deter transgressors than as the mediator of a distinct revenge adaptation.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , February 2013 , pp. 22 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Fessler, D. M. T. (2004) Shame in two cultures: Implications for evolutionary approaches. Journal of Cognition and Culture 4:207–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fessler, D. M. T. (2006) Violent response to transgression as an example of the intersection of evolved psychology and culture. In: Missing the revolution: Darwinism for social scientists, ed. Barkow, J., pp. 101–17. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fessler, D. M. T. (2010) Madmen: An evolutionary perspective on anger and men's violent responses to transgression. In: International handbook of anger: Constituent and concomitant biological, psychological, and social processes, ed. Potegal, M., Stemmler, G. & Spielberger, C., pp. 361–81. Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fessler, D. M. T. & Gervais, M. (2010) From whence the captains of our lives: Ultimate and phylogenetic perspectives on emotions in humans and other primates. In: Mind the gap: The origins of human universals, ed. Kappeler, P. & Silk, J. B., pp. 261–80. Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gervais, M. M. & Fessler, D. M. T. (under review) You're nothing to me: Reconceptualizing contempt as a cultural model of an ancient attitude.Google Scholar
Harbaugh, W. T. (1998) The prestige motive for making charitable transfers. American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings 88:277–82.Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. (1991) Emotion and adaptation. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sell, A., Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2009) Formidability and the logic of human anger. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106(35):15073–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sripada, C. S. & Stich, S. (2007) A framework for the psychology of norms. In: The innate mind: Vol. 2, culture and cognition, ed. Carruthers, P., Laurence, S. & Stich, S., pp. 280–301. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2005) Conceptual foundations of evolutionary psychology. In: The handbook of evolutionary psychology, ed. Buss, D. M., pp. 5–67. Wiley.Google Scholar