Thanks, Emily!
by
Mangar
10/22/2008, 4:47 PM
Gotta say, the granting agency ought to commend themselves for funding your literature review. You included an awful lot of smart people on the forefront of this research.
It will also be a great article to forward to people who insist on adhering to religious beliefs because they are the only conceivable source of civilized society. It takes a long time to build a case in a discussion that "moral" behavior is actually quite a good individual strategy if you're a member of a group-living, cooperative species whose other members can choose to either withhold or confer benefits from you based on your past actions towards others.
I don't know how long it will take to come out in print, but a very compelling and comprehensive take on the functionality of anger is coming from another researcher at the CEP (Center for Evolutionary Psychology) named Aaron Sell. One paper accepted for publication establishes a link between physical strength and an increased tendency to take offense (or get angry) but the deeper theoretical reasons why this ought to be true are, sadly, quite well worked out but still missing from the literature.