Minimizing the costs that others impose upon oneself and upon those in whom one has a
fitness stake, such as kin and allies, is a key adaptive problem for many organisms. Our …

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 …

McCullough et al. present a compelling case that anger-based revenge is designed to
disincentivize the target from imposing costs on the vengeful individual. Here I present a …

Humans have the cognitive abilities to implement the revenge and forgiveness systems
hypothesized by McCullough et al., but the evidence suggests that simpler processes may …

McCullough et al. hypothesize that evolution has selected mechanisms for revenge to deter
harms and for forgiveness to preserve valuable relationships. However, in highly dependent …

We propose that revenge responses are often influenced more by affective reactions than by
deliberate decision making as McCullough et al. suggest. We review social psychological …

We focus on two aspects: First, we argue that it is necessary to include implicit forgiveness
as an additional adaptive behavioral option to the perception of interpersonal …

McCullough et al. argue that revenge has a future-oriented function, that is, to deter future
harms by changing other individuals' incentives toward the self. Recent research has shown …

The target article's evolutionary approach provides an excellent framework for
understanding when and why people retaliate or forgive. We argue that recent findings on …

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 …