ABSTRACT
If certain ideas which constitute social and personal identities underpin phenomena of pitilessness
or compassion, then the same is true for guilt, shame and blame. These negative emotions inhere
in ways of appraising human conduct and cannot be understood without understanding the ideas
fuelling these appraisals. Cultural psychological accounts of perpetrators and of victims are alike
in this respect. Analogous to the role of genes in human lives, individuals are simultaneously the
users and the vehicles for the perpetuation of ideas about themselves and their worlds.
