Societal institutions echo evolved human nature: An analysis of the Western criminal justice system and its relation to anger

Social institutions make use of collective power to shape individual behavior. Attempts to modify these institutions to improve the welfare, fairness, or equity of a society will benefit from having an accurate view of how human nature works so they can design the interventions in ways that actually lead to the desired outcome. This means that the study of evolutionary psychology - i.e. the study of human nature - is particularly relevant when crafting societal changes in ways that avoid the frequent unintended consequences of these interventions. Here, we review the computational structure of human anger, and then analyze the fit between Western criminal justice systems and this universal emotion. This analysis shows structural correspondences between anger and features of the criminal justice system, though anomalies are noted. Finally, we review an evolutionary account of the emotion of hatred and note how hatred can account for some failures in the criminal justice system (e.g., episodes of extra-judicial lynching). We suggest that, ultimately, societal institutions will succeed or fail based on whether they are compatible with human nature.