Nakanaori no Kotowari (Evolutionary Psychology of Reconciliation)

The purpose of this book is to understand “reconciliation” from the evolutionary perspective. In this book, reconciliation is defined as a process to restore relationships endangered due to interpersonal transgressions or mutual misunderstandings. In this sense, the theme of this book is prevalent in our daily lives. However, why do we need to take the evolutionary perspective to understand such everyday matters? Indeed, many psychological studies on reconciliation have been conducted without taking the evolutionary perspective.
 
The reason for taking the evolutionary perspective is its ability to illuminate the essence of reconciliation. Human reconciliation processes are often too complicated to thoroughly understand. For example, some people may avoid apologizing to their victims just to save face regardless of their wish to reconcile with the victims; some people may not forgive their transgressors simply so as to enjoy their special status of victimhood. Are these factors essential for reconciliation processes? Although these factors may not seem essential, it is difficult to deny the possibility that they would affect the reconciliation processes. Accordingly, we must answer the inevitable question: How can we distinguish essential factors from inessential factors?
 
The evolutionary perspective (research on animal behavior and evolutionary game theory in particular) serves as a useful guide to answer this question. First, research on animal reconciliation processes teaches us what factor(s) facilitate reconciliation across species. Such factors, which are commonly found across species, must be essential for reconciliation processes. Second, evolutionary game theory defines human interactions with minimal ingredients: (at least two) players, their strategies (or behavioral options), and the payoffs determined by the combination of the players’ strategies. If we find a minimal situation that allows the evolution of reconciliation, it must also contain the essential factor(s).
 
According to these two lines of research, the essence of reconciliation processes is that they serve to maintain relationships with valuable partners. For example, in many primate species, it has been observed that individuals are quicker to approach their opponents after conflicts the more valuable their opponents are. In a similar vein, we humans also more readily forgive our transgressors when they are valuable partners and try to apologize more thoroughly when we inadvertently hurt valuable partners. This understanding allowed this book to review numerous psychological studies on reconciliation in terms of their relevance to the essential factor of reconciliation—-relationship value.
 

(Written by OHTSUBO Yohsuke, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology / 2022)