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Because of this, the emphasis has almost all been on the disadvantages of negative states and the benefits of positive states, to the nearly total neglect of \u2018diagonal psychology\u2019, which also considers the dangers of unwarranted positive states and the benefits of negative emotions in certain situations. The situations that arise in goal pursuit contain adaptive challenges that have shaped domain\u2013general positive and negative emotions that were partially differentiated by natural selection to cope with the more specific situations that arise in the pursuit of different kinds of goals. In cultures where large social groups give rise to specialized and competitive social roles, depression may be common because regulation systems are pushed far beyond the bounds for which they were designed. Research on the evolutionary origins of the capacities for positive and negative emotions is urgently needed to provide a foundation for sensible decisions about the use of new mood\u2013manipulating technologies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1098\/rstb.2004.1511","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2004,9,22]],"date-time":"2004-09-22T11:22:41Z","timestamp":1095852161000},"page":"1333-1347","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":129,"title":["Natural selection and the elusiveness of happiness"],"prefix":"10.1098","volume":"359","author":[{"given":"Randolph M.","family":"Nesse","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, Department of Psychology and Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan, 426 Thompson Street, Room 5261, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA ()"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"175","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2004,9,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"p_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alcock J. 2001 The triumph of sociobiology. 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