Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct
Language: English
Pages: 320
ISBN: 078797756X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Why is revenge such a pervasive and destructive problem? How can we create a future in which revenge is less common and forgiveness is more common? Psychologist Michael McCullough argues that the key to a more forgiving, less vengeful world is to understand the evolutionary forces that gave rise to these intimately human instincts and the social forces that activate them in human minds today. Drawing on exciting breakthroughs from the social and biological sciences, McCullough dispenses surprising and practical advice for making the world a more forgiving place.
Michael E. McCullough (Miami, Florida), an internationally recognized expert on forgiveness and revenge, is a professor of psychology at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, where he directs the Laboratory for Social and Clinical Psychology.
we fighting?” These articles have generated a number of responses, some of which adhered to the truth and were based on Islamic Law, and others which have not. Here we wanted to outline the truth—as an explanation and warning— hoping for Allah’s reward, seeking success and support from Him. While seeking Allah’s help, we form our reply based on two questions directed at the Americans: (Q1) Why are we fighting and opposing you? (Q2) What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you? As for
readiness to seek revenge served important functions for ancestral humans, and that it’s still capable of serving many of those important functions today. We’ll also see that the propensity for revenge isn’t strictly confined to humans: revenge takes place throughout the animal kingdom, and the reasons why we find it in other animals are similar to the reasons why we find it in humans. What’s more, thanks to brandnew scientific research, we’re now in a position to describe what a brain in pursuit
primatologists began to put the disturbing clues together—clues such as the chimpanzee corpses left in the bloody aftermath of these encounters—they came to the conclusion that bands of adult and adolescent chimpanzee males occasionally gather in something like “war parties” for the purpose of patrolling the borders of their territories and killing males from other communities. These killings usually seem opportunistic—if you find a strange chimpanzee male that you c01.indd 2 2/14/08 2:40:43 PM
Game ” Study In 2004, a team of Swiss scientists used positron emission tomography (a technique that involves determining which brain areas are active during a task by measuring how much blood they consume during the task) while a group of men played a “trust game” with what they thought were a series of other sentient c07.indd 137 2/14/08 2:50:49 PM 138 BEYOND REVENGE human beings (the participants were, in fact, playing against preprogrammed computer strategies). Economists invented the
during the free punishment rounds was strongly related to the extent to which the investors chose to punish stingy trustees during the costly punishment rounds. This fact suggests that players who anticipated lots of satisfaction in the free punishment condition were also more willing to punish at a personal cost to them— presumably because they anticipated more pleasure to result.12 The “ Bramitol ” Study Some of the most striking evidence that people are actually seeking pleasure when they’re