Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct

By Michael McCullough

Jossey-Bass, 2008, $24.95

Revenge is a normal feature of human nature but so is forgiveness. Michael McCullough, a professor of psychology and director of the Laboratory for Social and Clinical Psychology at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, says that he "wrote this book for people who want to understand where human beings' inspiring capacity for forgiveness and their hair-trigger propensity for revenge come from." McCullough believes that once we understand the "why" of the desire for revenge, we may be able to transform our societies so that such acts become unnecessary.

Science teaches that forgiveness and revenge are adaptive responses to perceived threats to our survival and ability to produce descendents. McCullough then steps onto sacred ground and tackles one of the most divisive topics of our age: the way religions - including Christianity and Islam - are linked to behaviors of forgiveness and revenge. Religions, says McCullough, are like living systems themselves: they do whatever is necessary in order to survive, including taking revenge on those seen as threats. "In the end, religion will be a force for forgiveness in the world when, and only when there's a perceived payoff to those groups themselves." Knowing this, he warns, "We shouldn't let misplaced optimism cause us to expect anything more, but we shouldn't let unwarranted pessimism cause us to strive for anything less."

The challenge for us all, says McCullough, is to envision and implement social structures that provide what is needed for us to feel that we, and our beliefs, are safe, while allowing others with whom we may not agree to feel the same. "If the history of life on this planet is any guide to what might come next, then the next transition for human evolution will probably involve yet more cooperation," McCullough predicts, adding that "complex social systems need to be forgiving systems if they are to evolve."