Real-life revenge may not effectively deter norm violations

Abstract

The current article examined the characteristics of real-life revenge acts. A demographically diverse sample of avengers described autobiographical revenge acts and the preceding offense. They rated the severity of both acts, the time before taking revenge, and motives for the timing. Independent raters also rated the severity of both acts and coded the domains. Results revealed that real-life revenge is (1) by and large equally common as revealed by lab-based studies on revenge, but (2) is usually a delayed response, and (3) although similar to offenses in severity (according to independent parties), it is dissimilar in the domain. These characteristics contradict manifestations of revenge as studied in lab research (e.g., as a response that must take place immediately and in the same domain). These discrepancies suggest that not all real-life instances of revenge are optimally suited to serve a deterrence function and that other motives may underlie more destructive revenge acts.

A revolt of the deplored? The role of perceived cultural distance in the educational gradient in anti‐establishment politics

“…While most of the data used in our analyses were collected in March 2020, multiple independent variables were derived from data collected from the same panel shortly before then (de Koster et al., 2020 ; Elshout, 2019a , 2019b ). Prior to linking these data, we removed any respondents who were straightlining ( n = 12) in de Koster et al.…”

“…We then appended our main data to that obtained by de Koster et al. ( 2020 ) and Elshout ( 2019a , 2019b ) for the respondents included in all three datasets. After this merger process, and given our focus on the educational gradient in anti‐establishment political attitudes and behavior, we removed the data of all of those who had not yet completed their education ( n = 64).…”

Perpetrators’, Victims’, and Witnesses’ Folk Explanations of Aggressive Behaviors

“…Perpetrators also report that their past aggressive behaviors were motivated by revenge (e.g., Ent & Parton, 2019), which implies, at least from the perpetrator's perspective, that a victim's earlier instigation ought to share some of the blame for their aggression. Victims also can try to minimize their blame by selectively recalling information that favors themselves (e.g., Elshout et al, 2017;McCarthy & Rivers, 2021;Stillwell & Baumeister, 1997), describing the perpetrator's behaviors as capricious and unpredictable (e.g., Baumeister et al, 1990), asserting the perpetrator's behavior was excessive (e.g., Elshout et al, 2017Elshout et al, , 2020, or some combination of these.…”

Fantasies of Revenge: An Evolutionary and Individual Differences Account

“…In other cases still, people might fantasize about revenge but face cultural barriers against performing it. For instance, even very angry individuals may be unwilling to take the risks involved in actually acting on their fantasies because they are influenced by roles, obligations, or norms that mitigate motivation toward revenge behavior (Crombag et al, 2003, Elshout et al, 2020; Finkel, 2007; Recchia et al, 2019).…”