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Pathways to abnormal revenge and forgiveness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2012

Pat Barclay
Pat Barclay*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada. [email protected]://www.uoguelph.ca/nacs/page.cfm?id=229
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Abstract

The target article's important point is easily misunderstood to claim that all revenge is adaptive. Revenge and forgiveness can overstretch (or understretch) the bounds of utility due to misperceptions, minimization of costly errors, a breakdown within our evolved revenge systems, or natural genetic and developmental variation. Together, these factors can compound to produce highly abnormal instances of revenge and forgiveness.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , February 2013 , pp. 17 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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