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Revenge and forgiveness in the New South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2012

Dan Joseph Stein ,
Jack van Honk  and
George Ellis
Dan Joseph Stein
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cape Town, Groote Schuur Hospital, Observatory 7925, Cape Town, South Africa. dan.stein@uct.ac.zajackvanh@gmail.com
Jack van Honk
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cape Town, Groote Schuur Hospital, Observatory 7925, Cape Town, South Africa. dan.stein@uct.ac.zajackvanh@gmail.com
George Ellis
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, Cape Town, South Africa. george.ellis@uct.ac.za
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Abstract

Insofar as South Africa underwent a rapid transformation from apartheid to democracy, it may provide a unique laboratory for investigating aspects of revenge and forgiveness. Here we suggest that observations and data from South Africa are partially consistent with the hypotheses generated by MCullough and colleagues. At the same time, the rich range of revenge and forgiveness phenomena in real-life settings is likely to require explanatory concepts other than specialized modules and their computational outputs.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , February 2013 , pp. 37 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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