1932

Abstract

Why do people take revenge? This question can be difficult to answer. Vengeance seems interpersonally destructive and antithetical to many of the most basic human instincts. However, an emerging body of social scientific research has begun to illustrate a logic to revenge, demonstrating why revenge evolved in humans and when and how people take revenge. We review this evidence and suggest that future studies on revenge would benefit from a multilevel perspective in which individual acts of revenge exist within higher-level cultural systems, with the potential to instigate change in these systems over time. With this framework, we can better understand the interplay between revenge's psychological properties and its role in cultural evolution.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-103305
2019-01-04
2024-03-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/psych/70/1/annurev-psych-010418-103305.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-103305&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Akın U, Akın A 2016. Examining mediator role of the social safeness on the relationship between vengeance and life satisfaction. Soc. Indic. Res. 125:31053–63
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Ambrose ML, Seabright MA, Schminke M 2002. Sabotage in the workplace: the role of organizational injustice. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process. 89:1947–65
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Ames DL, Fiske ST 2013. Intentional harms are worse, even when they're not. Psychol. Sci. 24:91755–62
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Anderson E 2000. Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City New York: WW Norton
  5. Andersson LM, Pearson CM 1999. Tit for tat? The spiraling effect of incivility in the workplace. Acad. Manag. Rev. 24:3452–71
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Aquino K, Tripp TM, Bies RJ 2001. How employees respond to personal offense: the effects of blame attribution, victim status, and offender status on revenge and reconciliation in the workplace. J. Appl. Psychol. 86:152–59
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Aquino K, Tripp TM, Bies RJ 2006. Getting even or moving on? Power, procedural justice, and types of offense as predictors of revenge, forgiveness, reconciliation, and avoidance in organizations. J. Appl. Psychol. 91:3653–68
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Aristotle. 2012. Nicomachean Ethics transl. RB Bartlett, SD Collins Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press.
  9. Barber L, Maltby J, Macaskill A 2005. Angry memories and thoughts of revenge: the relationship between forgiveness and anger rumination. Personal. Individ. Differ. 39:2253–62
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Barrett LF 2017. The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 12:11–23
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Baumeister RF, Bratslavsky E, Finkenauer C, Vohs KD 2001. Bad is stronger than good. Rev. Gen. Psychol. 5:4323–70
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Bavik A, Bavik YL 2015. Effect of employee incivility on customer retaliation through psychological contract breach: the moderating role of moral identity. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 50:66–76
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Beckerman S, Valentine P 2008. Revenge in the Cultures of Lowland South America Gainesville, FL: Univ. Press Fla.
  14. Berry JW, Worthington EL Jr., Parrott L III, O'Connor LE, Wade NG 2001. Dispositional forgivingness: development and construct validity of the Transgression Narrative Test of Forgivingness (TNTF). Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 27:101277–90
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Boehm C 1984. Blood Revenge: The Anthropology of Feuding in Montenegro and Other Tribal Societies Lawrence, KS: Univ. Kans. Press
  16. Bono G, McCullough ME 2004. Religion, forgiveness, and adjustment in older adulthood. Religious Influences on Health and Well-Being in the Elderly N Krause, A Booth 163–86 Berlin: Springer
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Boon SD, Deveau VL, Alibhai AM 2009. Payback: the parameters of revenge in romantic relationships. J. Soc. Personal Relatsh. 26:6–7747–68
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Boon SD, Yoshimura SM 2016. Avengees' perspectives on revenge: commitment as a predictor and relationship type differences. Personal Relatsh 23:3475–90
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Bordia P, Kiazad K, Restubog SLD, DiFonzo N, Stenson N, Tang RL 2014. Rumor as revenge in the workplace. Group Organ. Manag. 39:4363–88
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Bordia P, Restubog SLD, Tang RL 2008. When employees strike back: investigating mediating mechanisms between psychological contract breach and workplace deviance. J. Appl. Psych. 93:51104–17
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Brewer J, Gelfand M, Jackson JC, MacDonald IF, Peregrine PN et al. 2017. Grand challenges for the study of cultural evolution. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 1:0070
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Brezina T, Agnew R, Cullen FT, Wright JP 2004. The code of the street: a quantitative assessment of Elijah Anderson's subculture of violence thesis and its contribution to youth violence research. Youth Violence Juv. Justice 2:4303–28
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Brown BR 1970. Face-saving following experimentally induced embarrassment. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 6:3255–71
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Brown RP 2004. Vengeance is mine: narcissism, vengeance, and the tendency to forgive. J. Res. Personal. 38:6576–84
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Brown RP 2016. Honor Bound: How a Cultural Ideal Has Shaped the American Psyche Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
  26. Brüne M, Juckel G, Enzi B 2013. “An eye for an eye”? Neural correlates of retribution and forgiveness. PLOS ONE 8:8e73519
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Bur. Alcohol Tob. Firearms. 1999. Arson and explosives incidents report Rep. ATF P 3320.4 Bur. Alcohol Tob. Firearms Washington, DC:
  28. Bushman BJ, Baumeister RF, Phillips CM 2001. Do people aggress to improve their mood? Catharsis beliefs, affect regulation opportunity, and aggressive responding. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 81:117–32
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Campbell DT 1958. Common fate, similarity, and other indices of the status of aggregates of persons as social entities. Syst. Res. Behav. Sci. 3:114–25
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Carlsmith KM, Darley JM 2008. Psychological aspects of retributive justice. Adv. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 40:193–236
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Carlsmith KM, Darley JM, Robinson PH 2002. Why do we punish? Deterrence and just deserts as motives for punishment. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 83:2284–99
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Carlsmith KM, Wilson TD, Gilbert DT 2008. The paradoxical consequences of revenge. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 95:61316–24
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Carver CS, Harmon-Jones E 2009. Anger is an approach-related affect: evidence and implications. Psychol. Bull. 135:2183–204
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Chagnon N 2012. The Yanomamo San Diego, CA: Harcourt BraceA comprehensive book documenting blood revenge among the Yanomamo people of South America.
  35. Chester DS 2017. The role of positive affect in aggression. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 26:4366–70
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Chester DS, DeWall CN 2015. The pleasure of revenge: retaliatory aggression arises from a neural imbalance toward reward. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 11:71173–82
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Chester DS, DeWall CN 2017. Combating the sting of rejection with the pleasure of revenge: a new look at how emotion shapes aggression. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 112:3413–30A series of studies showing that people take revenge after rejection to repair their mood.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Chester DS, DeWall CN, Derefinko KJ, Estus S, Lynam DR et al. 2016. Looking for reward in all the wrong places: Dopamine receptor gene polymorphisms indirectly affect aggression through sensation-seeking. Soc. Neurosci. 11:5487–94
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Choi VK, Gelfand MJ, Jackson JC 2018. The role of entitativity in perpetuating cycles of violence. Behav. Brain Sci. In press
  40. Clutton-Brock T 2017. Reproductive competition and sexual selection. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 372:172920160310
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Clutton-Brock TH, Parker GA 1995. Punishment in animal societies. Nature 373:6511209–16
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Cohen D, Nisbett RE, Bowdle BF, Schwarz N 1996. Insult, aggression, and the southern culture of honor: an “experimental ethnography.”. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 70:5945–59
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Crombag H, Rassin E, Horselenberg R 2003. On vengeance. Psychol. Crime Law 9:4333–44
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Cross SE, Uskul AK, Gerçek-Swing B, Sunbay Z, Alözkan C et al. 2014. Cultural prototypes and dimensions of honor. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 40:2232–49
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Cushman F, Gray K, Gaffey A, Mendes WB 2012. Simulating murder: the aversion to harmful action. Emotion 12:12–7
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Daly M, Wilson M 1988. Homicide New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publ.
  47. Darley JM, Pittman TS 2003. The psychology of compensatory and retributive justice. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 7:4324–36
    [Google Scholar]
  48. De Quervain DJ, Fischbacher U, Treyer V, Schellhammer M 2004. The neural basis of altruistic punishment. Science 305:56881254–58
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Denson TF, Lickel B, Curtis M, Stenstrom DM, Ames DR 2006. The roles of entitativity and essentiality in judgments of collective responsibility. Group Process. Intergroup Relat. 9:143–61
    [Google Scholar]
  50. DeScioli P, Kurzban R 2009. The alliance hypothesis for human friendship. PLOS ONE 4:6e5802
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Denyer N 2008. Plato: Protagoras Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  52. Dewall CN, Baumeister RF, Stillman TF, Gailliot MT 2007. Violence restrained: effects of self-regulation and its depletion on aggression. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 43:162–76
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Dietz J, Robinson SL, Folger R, Baron RA, Schulz M 2003. The impact of community violence and an organization's procedural justice climate on workplace aggression. Acad. Manag. J. 46:3317–26
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Dollard J, Miller NE, Doob LW, Mowrer OH, Sears RR 1939. Frustration and Aggression New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press
  55. dos Santos M, Rankin DJ, Wedekind C 2011. The evolution of punishment through reputation. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 278:1704371–77
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Douglas SC, Martinko MJ 2001. Exploring the role of individual differences in the prediction of workplace aggression. J. Appl. Psychol. 86:4547–59
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Duntley JD, Shackelford TK 2008. Darwinian foundations of crime and law. Aggress. Violent Behav. 13:5373–82
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Eadeh FR, Peak SA, Lambert AJ 2017. The bittersweet taste of revenge: on the negative and positive consequences of retaliation. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 68:27–39
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Eaves LJ, Hatemi PK, Prom-Womley EC, Murrelle L 2008. Social and genetic influences on adolescent religious attitudes and practices. Soc. Forces 86:41621–46
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Eisenberger R, Lynch P, Aselage J, Rohdieck S 2004. Who takes the most revenge? Individual differences in negative reciprocity norm endorsement. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 30:6787–99
    [Google Scholar]
  61. El Akremi A, Vandenberghe C, Camerman J 2010. The role of justice and social exchange relationships in workplace deviance: test of a mediated model. Hum. Relat. 63:111687–717
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Ellsworth PC, Scherer KR 2003. Appraisal processes in emotion. Handbook of Affective Sciences RJ Davidson, KR Scherer, HH Goldsmith 572–95 Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  63. Elshout M, Nelissen R, van Beest I 2015. A prototype analysis of vengeance. Personal Relatsh 22:3502–23
    [Google Scholar]
  64. Elshout M, Nelissen R, van Beest I 2017.a Your act is worse than mine: perception bias in revenge situations. Aggress. Behav. 43:6553–57
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Elshout M, Nelissen R, van Beest I, Elshout S, Van Dijk WW 2017.b Situational precursors of revenge: social exclusion, relationship type, and opportunity. Personal Relatsh 24:2291–305
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Elster J 1990. Norms of revenge. Ethics 100:4862–85
    [Google Scholar]
  67. Ember M 1997. Evolution of the human relations area files. Cross-Cult. Res. 31:13–15
    [Google Scholar]
  68. Ericksen KP, Horton H 1992. “Blood feuds”: cross-cultural variations in kin group vengeance. Cross-Cult. Res. 26:1–457–85
    [Google Scholar]
  69. Exline JJ, Baumeister RF, Bushman BJ, Campbell WK, Finkel EJ 2004. Too proud to let go: narcissistic entitlement as a barrier to forgiveness. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 87:6894–912
    [Google Scholar]
  70. Fehr E, Fischbacher U, Gächter S 2002. Strong reciprocity, human cooperation, and the enforcement of social norms. Hum. Nat. 13:11–25
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Fehr E, Gächter S 2000. Fairness and retaliation: the economics of reciprocity. J. Econ. Perspect. 14:3159–81
    [Google Scholar]
  72. Fehr R, Gelfand MJ, Nag M 2010. The road to forgiveness: a meta-analytic synthesis of its situational and dispositional correlates. Psychol. Bull. 136:5894–914
    [Google Scholar]
  73. Fehr E, Henrich J 2003. Is strong reciprocity a maladaptation? On the evolutionary foundations of human altruism Work. Pap. 859 Cent. Econ. Stud., CESifo Group, Univ Munich, Ger.:
  74. Ferguson RB 2001. Materialist, cultural and biological theories on why Yanomami make war. Anthropol. Theory 1:199–116
    [Google Scholar]
  75. Fessler DMT 2006. The male flash of anger: violent response to transgression as an example of the intersection of evolved psychology and culture. Missing the Revolution: Darwinism for Social Scientists JH Barkow 101–19 Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  76. Feuer A, Singer J 2017. A Brooklyn murder's decades-old origins in rural China. The New York Times July 16. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/16/nyregion/a-brooklyn-murders-decades-old-origins-in-rural-china.html
  77. Finkel EJ, Rusbult CE, Kumashiro M, Hannon PA 2002. Dealing with betrayal in close relationships: Does commitment promote forgiveness. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 82:6956–74
    [Google Scholar]
  78. Fischer P, Haslam SA, Smith L 2010. “If you wrong us, shall we not revenge?” Social identity salience moderates support for retaliation in response to collective threat. Group Dyn. Theory Res. Pract. 14:2143–50
    [Google Scholar]
  79. Fiske AP, Rai TS 2014. Virtuous Violence: Hurting and Killing to Create, Sustain, End, and Honor Social Relationships Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  80. Ford R, Blegen MA 1992. Offensive and defensive use of punitive tactics in explicit bargaining. Soc. Psychol. Q. 55:4351–62
    [Google Scholar]
  81. Francis L, Holmvall CM, O'Brien LE 2015. The influence of workload and civility of treatment on the perpetration of email incivility. Comput. Hum. Behav. 46:191–201
    [Google Scholar]
  82. Freud S 1930. Civilization and Its Discontents Vienna: Int. Psychoanal. Verl.
  83. Frydman C, Camerer C, Bossaerts P, Rangel A 2011. MAOA-L carriers are better at making optimal financial decisions under risk. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 278:17142053–59
    [Google Scholar]
  84. Funk F, McGeer V, Gollwitzer M 2014. Get the message: Punishment is satisfying if the transgressor responds to its communicative intent. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 40:8986–97
    [Google Scholar]
  85. Gavrilets S, Richerson PJ 2017. Collective action and the evolution of social norm internalization. PNAS 114:236068–73
    [Google Scholar]
  86. Gelfand M, Shteynberg G, Lee T, Lun J, Lyons S et al. 2012.a The cultural contagion of conflict. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 367:1589692–703
    [Google Scholar]
  87. Gelfand MJ, Harrington JR, Jackson JC 2017. The strength of social norms across human groups. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 12:5800–9
    [Google Scholar]
  88. Gelfand MJ, Jackson JC 2016. From one mind to many: the emerging science of cultural norms. Curr. Opin. Psychol. 8:175–81
    [Google Scholar]
  89. Gelfand MJ, Leslie LM, Keller KM 2008. On the etiology of conflict cultures. Res. Organ. Behav. 28:137–66
    [Google Scholar]
  90. Gelfand MJ, Leslie LM, Keller K, de Dreu C 2012.b Conflict cultures in organizations: how leaders shape conflict cultures and their organizational-level consequences. J. Appl. Psychol. 97:61131–47
    [Google Scholar]
  91. Gelfand MJ, Nishii LH, Holcombe KM, Dyer N, Ohbuchi KI, Fukuno M 2001. Cultural influences on cognitive representations of conflict: interpretations of conflict episodes in the United States and Japan. J. Appl. Psychol. 86:61059–74
    [Google Scholar]
  92. Gelfand MJ, Raver JL, Nishii L, Leslie LM, Lun J et al. 2011. Differences between tight and loose cultures: a 33-nation study. Science 332:60331100–4
    [Google Scholar]
  93. Gerlsma C, Lugtmeyer V 2018. Offense type as determinant of revenge and forgiveness after victimization: adolescents’ responses to injustice and aggression. J. School Violence 17:116–27
    [Google Scholar]
  94. Gintis H 2000. Strong reciprocity and human sociality. J. Theor. Biol. 206:2169–79
    [Google Scholar]
  95. Gintis H 2013. An implausible model and evolutionary explanation of the revenge motive. Behav. Brain Sci. 36:121–22
    [Google Scholar]
  96. Glomb TM, Liao H 2003. Interpersonal aggression in work groups: social influence, reciprocal, and individual effects. Acad. Manag. J. 46:4486–96
    [Google Scholar]
  97. Gollwitzer M, Bushman BJ 2012. Do victims of injustice punish to improve their mood. Soc. Psychol. Personal. Sci. 3:5572–80
    [Google Scholar]
  98. Gollwitzer M, Denzler M 2009. What makes revenge sweet: seeing the offender suffer or delivering a message. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 45:4840–44
    [Google Scholar]
  99. Gollwitzer M, Meder M, Schmitt M 2011. What gives victims satisfaction when they seek revenge. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 41:3364–74
    [Google Scholar]
  100. Gray HM, Gray K, Wegner DM 2007. Dimensions of mind perception. Science 315:5812619
    [Google Scholar]
  101. Gray K 2017. How to map theory: Reliable methods are fruitless without rigorous theory. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 12:5731–41
    [Google Scholar]
  102. Gray K, Wegner DM 2009. Moral typecasting: divergent perceptions of moral agents and moral patients. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 96:3505–20
    [Google Scholar]
  103. Gray RD, Watts J 2017. Cultural macroevolution matters. PNAS 114:307846–52
    [Google Scholar]
  104. Greer T, Berman M, Varan V, Bobrycki L, Watson S 2005. We are a religious people; we are a vengeful people. J. Sci. Study Relig. 44:145–57
    [Google Scholar]
  105. Grégoire Y, Laufer D, Tripp TM 2010. A comprehensive model of customer direct and indirect revenge: understanding the effects of perceived greed and customer power. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 38:6738–58
    [Google Scholar]
  106. Griep Y, Vantilborgh T 2018. Reciprocal effects of psychological contract breach on counterproductive and organizational citizenship behaviors: the role of time. J. Vocat. Behav. 104:141–53
    [Google Scholar]
  107. Grobbink LH, Derksen JJ, van Marle HJ 2015. Revenge: an analysis of its psychological underpinnings. Int. J. Offender Ther. Comp. Criminol. 59:8892–907
    [Google Scholar]
  108. Grosjean P 2014. A history of violence: the culture of honor and homicide in the US South. J. Eur. Econ. Assoc. 12:51285–316
    [Google Scholar]
  109. Harinck F, Shafa S, Ellemers N, Beersma B 2013. The good news about honor culture: the preference for cooperative conflict management in the absence of insults. Negot. Confl. Manag. Res. 6:267–78
    [Google Scholar]
  110. Harris LC, Ogbonna E 2006. Service sabotage: a study of antecedents and consequences. J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 34:4543–58
    [Google Scholar]
  111. Hauser MD, Marler P 1993. Food-associated calls in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta): I. Socioecological factors. Behav. Ecol. 4:3194–205
    [Google Scholar]
  112. Heizer RF, Mills JE, Cutter DC 1952. Four Ages of Tsurai: A Documentary History of the Indian Village on Trinidad Bay Berkeley, CA: Univ. Calif. Press
  113. Henrich J, McElreath R 2003. The evolution of cultural evolution. Evol. Anthropol. Issues News Rev. 12:3123–35
    [Google Scholar]
  114. Henrich J, McElreath R, Barr A, Ensminger J, Barrett C et al. 2006. Costly punishment across human societies. Science 312:57811767–70
    [Google Scholar]
  115. Hershcovis MS, Turner N, Barling J, Arnold KA, Dupré KE et al. 2007. Predicting workplace aggression: a meta-analysis. J. Appl. Psychol. 92:1228–38
    [Google Scholar]
  116. Hofstede G 2003. Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
  117. Horney K 1948. The value of vindictiveness. Am. J. Psychoanal. 8:13–12
    [Google Scholar]
  118. Horsfall JA 1984. Brood reduction and brood division in coots. Anim. Behav. 32:1216–25
    [Google Scholar]
  119. Hruschka DJ, Henrich J 2006. Friendship, cliquishness, and the emergence of cooperation. J. Theor. Biol. 239:11–15
    [Google Scholar]
  120. Hugh-Jones D, Leroch MA 2017. Intergroup revenge: a laboratory experiment. Homo Oeconomicus 34:2–3117–35
    [Google Scholar]
  121. Ijzerman H, van Dijk WW, Gallucci M 2007. A bumpy train ride: a field experiment on insult, honor, and emotional reactions. Emotion 7:4869–75
    [Google Scholar]
  122. Jackson JC, Gelfand MG, De S, Fox A 2016. The temporal signature of cultural tightness-looseness Presented at Annu. Assoc. Psychol. Sci. Conv., 28th Chicago, IL:
  123. Jackson JC, Gray K 2018. When a good God makes bad people: testing a theory of religion and immorality. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. In press
  124. Jackson JC, Rand D, Lewis K, Norton MI, Gray K 2017. Agent-based modeling: a guide for social psychologists. Soc. Psychol. Personal. Sci. 8:4387–95
    [Google Scholar]
  125. Jones D, Carroll S 2008. Revenge is a dish best served cold: avengers’ accounts of calculated revenge cognitions and assessment of a proposed measure Meet. Pap., Int. Assoc. Confl. Manag. Myrtle Beach, SC:
  126. Jones DA 2009. Getting even with one's supervisor and one's organization: relationships among types of injustice, desires for revenge, and counterproductive work behaviors. J. Organ. Behav. 30:4525–42
    [Google Scholar]
  127. Kahn DT, Klar Y, Roccas S 2017. For the sake of the eternal group: perceiving the group as trans-generational and endurance of ingroup suffering. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 43:2272–83
    [Google Scholar]
  128. Kappes A, Crockett MJ 2016. The benefits and costs of a rose-colored hindsight. Trends Cogn. Sci. 20:9644–46
    [Google Scholar]
  129. Karremans JC, Smith PK 2010. Having the power to forgive: when the experience of power increases interpersonal forgiveness. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 36:81010–23
    [Google Scholar]
  130. Kelsall T 2003. Rituals of verification: indigenous and imported accountability in Northern Tanzania. Africa 73:2174–201
    [Google Scholar]
  131. Kim S, Smith RH 1993. Revenge and conflict escalation. Negot. J. 9:137–43
    [Google Scholar]
  132. Kim SH, Smith RH, Brigham NL 1998. Effects of power imbalance and the presence of third parties on reactions to harm: upward and downward revenge. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 24:4353–61
    [Google Scholar]
  133. Kirby KR, Gray RD, Greenhill SJ, Jordan FM, Gomes-Ng S et al. 2016. D-PLACE: a global database of cultural, linguistic and environmental diversity. PLOS ONE 11:7e0158391
    [Google Scholar]
  134. Kober H, Barrett LF, Joseph J, Bliss-Moreau E, Lindquist K, Wager TD 2008. Functional grouping and cortical–subcortical interactions in emotion: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. NeuroImage 42:2998–1031
    [Google Scholar]
  135. Konečni VJ 1974. Self-arousal, dissipation of anger, and aggression. Proc. Div. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 1:1192–94
    [Google Scholar]
  136. Kopsaj V 2016. Blood feud and its impact on the Albanian criminality. Mediterr. J. Soc. Sci. 7:3 S188–95
    [Google Scholar]
  137. Kozlowski SWJ, Klein KJ 2000. A multilevel approach to theory and research in organizations: contextual, temporal, and emergent processes. Multilevel Theory, Research, and Methods in Organizations: Foundations, Extensions, and New Directions KJ Klein, SWJ Kozlowski 3–90 San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
    [Google Scholar]
  138. Kruglanski AW, Gelfand MJ, Bélanger JJ, Sheveland A, Hetiarachchi M, Gunaratna R 2014. The psychology of radicalization and deradicalization: how significance quest impacts violent extremism. Political Psychol 35:S169–93
    [Google Scholar]
  139. Kubrin CE, Weitzer R 2003. Retaliatory homicide: concentrated disadvantage and neighborhood culture. Soc. Probl. 50:2157–80
    [Google Scholar]
  140. Laurin K, Shariff AF, Henrich J, Kay AC 2012. Outsourcing punishment to God: Beliefs in divine control reduce earthly punishment. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 279:17413272–81
    [Google Scholar]
  141. Lee RB 1979. The Kung San: Men, Women, and Work in a Foraging Society Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  142. Lee TL, Gelfand MJ, Kashima Y 2014. The serial reproduction of conflict: Third parties escalate conflict through communication biases. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 54:68–72
    [Google Scholar]
  143. Lerner JS, Goldberg JH, Tetlock PE 1998. Sober second thought: the effects of accountability, anger, and authoritarianism on attributions of responsibility. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 24:6563–74
    [Google Scholar]
  144. Lerner JS, Tiedens LZ 2006. Portrait of the angry decision maker: how appraisal tendencies shape anger's influence on cognition. J. Behav. Decis. Making 19:2115–37
    [Google Scholar]
  145. Liang LH, Brown DJ, Lian H, Hanig S, Ferris DL, Keeping LM 2018. Righting a wrong: retaliation on a voodoo doll symbolizing an abusive supervisor restores justice. Leadersh. Q. 29:443–56
    [Google Scholar]
  146. Lickel B, Hamilton DL, Wieczorkowska G, Lewis A, Sherman SJ, Uhles AN 2000. Varieties of groups and the perception of group entitativity. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 78:2223–46
    [Google Scholar]
  147. Lickel B, Miller N, Stenstrom DM, Denson TF, Schmader T 2006. Vicarious retribution: the role of collective blame in intergroup aggression. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 10:4372–90A review of how perceptions of entitativity facilitate cases of vicarious revenge.
    [Google Scholar]
  148. Lickel B, Schmader T, Hamilton DL 2003. A case of collective responsibility: Who else was to blame for the Columbine High School shootings. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 29:2194–204
    [Google Scholar]
  149. Lillie M, Strelan P 2016. Careful what you wish for: Fantasizing about revenge increases justice dissatisfaction in the chronically powerless. Personal. Individ. Differ. 94:290–94
    [Google Scholar]
  150. Lindquist KA, Wager TD, Kober H, Bliss-Moreau E, Barrett LF 2012. The brain basis of emotion: a meta-analytic review. Behav. Brain Sci. 35:3121–43
    [Google Scholar]
  151. Liu J, Kwong Kwan H, Wu LZ, Wu W 2010. Abusive supervision and subordinate supervisor‐directed deviance: the moderating role of traditional values and the mediating role of revenge cognitions. J. Occup. Organ. Psychol. 83:4835–56
    [Google Scholar]
  152. Loewenstein G 1996. Out of control: visceral influences on behavior. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process. 65:3272–92
    [Google Scholar]
  153. Long EC, Christian MS 2015. Mindfulness buffers retaliatory responses to injustice: a regulatory approach. J. Appl. Psychol. 100:51409–22
    [Google Scholar]
  154. Lyons-Padilla S, Gelfand MJ, Mirahmadi H, Farooq M, van Egmond M 2015. Belonging nowhere: marginalization and radicalization risk among Muslim immigrants. Behav. Sci. Policy 1:21–12
    [Google Scholar]
  155. MacCormack JK, Lindquist KA 2017. Bodily contributions to emotion: Schachter's legacy for a psychological constructionist view on emotion. Emot. Rev. 9:136–45
    [Google Scholar]
  156. MacCormack JK, Lindquist KA 2018. Feeling hangry? When hunger is conceptualized as emotion. Emotion In press Describes studies showing that hunger can facilitate revenge if it is misattributed as anger.
  157. Macfarlan SJ, Walker RS, Flinn MV, Chagnon NA 2014. Lethal coalitionary aggression and long-term alliance formation among Yanomamö men. PNAS 111:4716662–69
    [Google Scholar]
  158. Malinowski B 2014. Argonauts of the Western Pacific London: Routledge
  159. Maltby J, Wood AM, Day L, Kon TW, Colley A, Linley PA 2008. Personality predictors of levels of forgiveness two and a half years after the transgression. J. Res. Personal. 42:41088–94
    [Google Scholar]
  160. Margolick D 1994. Lorena Bobbitt acquitted in mutilation of husband. The New York Times Jan. 22 1001001
  161. McCullough ME, Kurzban R, Tabak BA 2013. Cognitive systems for revenge and forgiveness. Behav. Brain Sci. 36:11–15A review that argues that revenge evolved in humans because it could deter repeated offenses.
    [Google Scholar]
  162. McCullough ME, Rachal KC, Sandage SJ, Worthington EL Jr., Brown SW, Hight TL 1998. Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships: II. Theoretical elaboration and measurement. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 75:61586–603
    [Google Scholar]
  163. McCullough ME, Worthington EL Jr. 1999. Religion and the forgiving personality. J. Personal. 67:61141–64
    [Google Scholar]
  164. McDermott R, Tingley D, Cowden J, Frazzetto G, Johnson DD 2009. Monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA) predicts behavioral aggression following provocation. PNAS 106:72118–23
    [Google Scholar]
  165. McIlduff E, Coghlan D 2000. Understanding and contending with passive-aggressive behaviour in teams and organizations. J. Manag. Psychol. 15:7716–36
    [Google Scholar]
  166. Meier LL, Gross S 2015. Episodes of incivility between subordinates and supervisors: examining the role of self-control and time with an interaction-record diary study. J. Organ. Behav. 36:81096–113
    [Google Scholar]
  167. Mendes N, Steinbeis N, Bueno-Guerra N, Call J, Singer T 2018. Preschool children and chimpanzees incur costs to watch punishment of antisocial others. Nat. Hum. Behav. 2:145–51
    [Google Scholar]
  168. Mesquita B, Frijda NH 1992. Cultural variation in emotions: a review. Psychol. Bull. 112:2179–204
    [Google Scholar]
  169. Meyer-Lindenberg A, Buckholtz JW, Kolachana B, Hariri AR, Pezawas L et al. 2006. Neural mechanisms of genetic risk for impulsivity and violence in humans. PNAS 103:166269–74
    [Google Scholar]
  170. Miller AJ, Worthington EL Jr., McDaniel MA 2008. Gender and forgiveness: a meta-analytic review and research agenda. J. Soc. Clin. Psychol. 27:8843–76
    [Google Scholar]
  171. Miller NE 1941. I. The frustration-aggression hypothesis. Psychol. Rev. 48:4337–42
    [Google Scholar]
  172. Mills MGL 1991. Conservation management of large carnivores in Africa. Koedoe 34:181–90
    [Google Scholar]
  173. Mitchell MS, Ambrose ML 2007. Abusive supervision and workplace deviance and the moderating effects of negative reciprocity beliefs. J. Appl. Psychol. 92:41159–68
    [Google Scholar]
  174. Mueller DC 2004. Public choice: an introduction. The Encyclopedia of Public Choice C Rowley, F Schneider 32–48 Berlin: Springer
    [Google Scholar]
  175. Murphy FC, Nimmo-Smith IAN, Lawrence AD 2003. Functional neuroanatomy of emotions: a meta-analysis. Cogn. Affect. Behav. Neurosci. 3:3207–33
    [Google Scholar]
  176. New York City Police Dep. 2012. Murder in New York City Rep., New York City Police Dep. New York:
  177. Nisbett RE, Cohen D 1996. Culture of Honor: The Psychology of Violence in the South London: Hachette UK
  178. Nowak A, Gelfand MJ, Borkowski W, Cohen D, Hernandez I 2016. The evolutionary basis of honor cultures. Psychol. Sci. 27:112–24An agent-based model showing that honor cultures survive best under conditions of weak law enforcement.
    [Google Scholar]
  179. Odeh LA 2010. Honor killings and the construction of gender in Arab societies. Am. J. Comp. Law 58:4911–52
    [Google Scholar]
  180. Osgood JM 2017. Is revenge about retributive justice, deterring harm, or both. Soc. Personal. Psychol. Compass 11:1e12296
    [Google Scholar]
  181. Pascal B 1852. Pensées Paris: Firmin-Didot
  182. Petersen MB 2010. Distinct emotions, distinct domains: anger, anxiety and perceptions of intentionality. J. Politics 72:2357–65
    [Google Scholar]
  183. Pronk TM, Karremans JC, Overbeek G, Vermulst AA, Wigboldus DH 2010. What it takes to forgive: when and why executive functioning facilitates forgiveness. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 98:1119–31
    [Google Scholar]
  184. Rajchert J, Winiewski M 2016. The behavioral approach and inhibition systems' role in shaping the displaced and direct aggressive reaction to ostracism and rejection. Personal. Individ. Differ. 88:272–79
    [Google Scholar]
  185. Rasmussen K 1931. The Netsilik Eskimos: Social Life and Spiritual Culture: Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition, 1921–1924 VIII No. 1–2 Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel
  186. Raver JL, Barling J 2008. Workplace aggression and conflict: constructs, commonalities, and challenges for future inquiry. The Psychology of Conflict and Conflict Management in Organizations CKW De Dreu, MJ Gelfand 211–44 Abingdon, UK: Routledge
    [Google Scholar]
  187. Reiter J, Stinson NL, Le Boeuf BJ 1978. Northern elephant seal development: the transition from weaning to nutritional independence. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 3:4337–67
    [Google Scholar]
  188. Restubog SLD, Zagenczyk TJ, Bordia P, Bordia S, Chapman GJ 2015. If you wrong us, shall we not revenge? Moderating roles of self-control and perceived aggressive work culture in predicting responses to psychological contract breach. J. Manag. 41:41132–54
    [Google Scholar]
  189. Richardson DC, Bernstein S, Taylor SP 1979. The effect of situational contingencies on female retaliative behavior. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 37:112044–48
    [Google Scholar]
  190. Richerson P, Baldini R, Bell AV, Demps K, Frost K et al. 2016. Cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation: a sketch of the evidence. Behav. Brain Sci. 39:e30
    [Google Scholar]
  191. Rieder J 1984. The social organization of vengeance. Toward a General Theory of Social Control D Black 131–62 Amsterdam: Elsevier
    [Google Scholar]
  192. Robinson SL, Bennett RJ 1995. A typology of deviant workplace behaviors: a multidimensional scaling study. Acad. Manag. J. 38:2555–72
    [Google Scholar]
  193. Roseman IJ, Wiest C, Swartz TS 1994. Phenomenology, behaviors, and goals differentiate discrete emotions. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 67:2206–21
    [Google Scholar]
  194. Rudolph U, Roesch S, Greitemeyer T, Weiner B 2004. A meta-analytic review of help giving and aggression from an attributional perspective: contributions to a general theory of motivation. Cogn. Emot. 18:6815–48
    [Google Scholar]
  195. Schumann K, Ross M 2010. The benefits, costs, and paradox of revenge. Soc. Personal. Psychol. Compass 4:121193–205
    [Google Scholar]
  196. Sell A, Tooby J, Cosmides L 2009. Formidability and the logic of human anger. PNAS 106:3515073–78
    [Google Scholar]
  197. Sev'er A, Yurdakul G 2001. Culture of honor, culture of change: a feminist analysis of honor killings in rural Turkey. Violence Against Women 7:9964–98
    [Google Scholar]
  198. Shteynberg G, Gelfand MJ, Kim K 2009. Peering into the “magnum mysterium” of culture: the explanatory power of descriptive norms. J. Cross-Cult. Psychol. 40:146–69
    [Google Scholar]
  199. Siegel Christian J, Christian MS, Garza AS, Ellis AP 2012. Examining retaliatory responses to justice violations and recovery attempts in teams. J. Appl. Psychol. 97:61218–32
    [Google Scholar]
  200. Sindermann C, Luo R, Zhao Z, Li Q, Li M et al. 2018. High anger and low agreeableness predict vengefulness in German and Chinese participants. Personal. Individ. Differ. 121:184–92
    [Google Scholar]
  201. Sjöström A, Gollwitzer M 2015. Displaced revenge: Can revenge taste “sweet” if it aims at a different target?. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 56:191–202
    [Google Scholar]
  202. Souleimanov EA, Aliyev H 2015. Asymmetry of values, indigenous forces, and incumbent success in counterinsurgency: evidence from Chechnya. J. Strateg. Stud. 38:5678–703
    [Google Scholar]
  203. Stenstrom DM, Lickel B, Denson TF, Miller N 2008. The roles of in-group identification and outgroup entitativity in intergroup retribution. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 34:111570–82
    [Google Scholar]
  204. Stillwell AM, Baumeister RF, Del Priore RE 2008. We're all victims here: toward a psychology of revenge. Basic Appl. Soc. Psychol. 30:3253–63Shows that a mismatch in the perception of revenge among disputing parties can elicit feuds.
    [Google Scholar]
  205. Strelan P, Weick M, Vasiljevic M 2014. Power and revenge. Br. J. Soc. Psychol. 53:3521–40
    [Google Scholar]
  206. Swann WB Jr., Jetten J, Gómez Á, Whitehouse H, Bastian B 2012. When group membership gets personal: a theory of identity fusion. Psychol. Rev. 119:3441–56
    [Google Scholar]
  207. Talley T 2016. Police: airport shooting likely case of workplace revenge. The Boston Globe Nov. 17. https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/11/16/police-airport-shooting-likely-case-workplace-revenge/bahA8lwV160n3bpg8ybFcK/story.html
  208. Thaler RH 1990. Anomalies: saving, fungibility, and mental accounts. J. Econ. Perspect. 4:1193–205
    [Google Scholar]
  209. Thau S, Aquino K, Poortvliet PM 2007. Self-defeating behaviors in organizations: the relationship between thwarted belonging and interpersonal work behaviors. J. Appl. Psychol. 92:3840–47
    [Google Scholar]
  210. Tinbergen N 1963. On aims and methods of ethology. Ethology 20:4410–33
    [Google Scholar]
  211. Tripp TM, Bies RJ 2010. “Righteous” anger and revenge in the workplace: the fantasies, the feuds, the forgiveness. International Handbook of Anger M Potegal, G Stemmer, C Spielberger 413–31 Berlin: Springer
    [Google Scholar]
  212. Twenge JM, Campbell WK 2003. “Isn't it fun to get the respect that we're going to deserve?” Narcissism, social rejection, and aggression. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 29:2261–72
    [Google Scholar]
  213. Uskul AK, Cross SE, Günsoy C, Gerçek-Swing B, Alözkan C, Ataca B 2015. A price to pay: Turkish and Northern American retaliation for threats to personal and family honor. Aggress. Behav. 41:6594–607
    [Google Scholar]
  214. Uskul AK, Oyserman D, Schwarz N 2010. Cultural emphasis on honor, modesty, or self-enhancement: implications for the survey-response process. Survey Methods in Multinational, Multiregional, and Multicultural Contexts JA Harkness, M Braun, B Edwards, TP Johnson, L Lyberg, et al. 191–201 Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
    [Google Scholar]
  215. van Osch Y, Breugelmans SM, Zeelenberg M, Bölük P 2013. A different kind of honor culture: family honor and aggression in Turks. Group Process. Intergroup Relat. 16:3334–44
    [Google Scholar]
  216. Varnum ME, Grossmann I 2017. Cultural change: the how and the why. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 12:6956–72
    [Google Scholar]
  217. Vossekuil B, Fein RA, Reddy M, Borum R, Modzeleski W 2002. The final report and findings of the Safe School Initiative: implications for the prevention of school attacks in the United States U. S. Secret Serv./U. S. Dep. Educ. Washington, DC:
  218. Wang Q, Bowling NA, Tian QT, Alarcon GM, Kwan HK 2018. Workplace harassment intensity and revenge: mediation and moderation effects. J. Bus. Ethics. 151:213–34
    [Google Scholar]
  219. Waters CN, Zalasiewicz J, Summerhayes C, Barnosky AD, Poirier C et al. 2016. The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene. Science 351:6269aad2622
    [Google Scholar]
  220. Watts J, Sheehan O, Greenhill SJ, Gomes-Ng S, Atkinson QD et al. 2015. Pulotu: database of Austronesian supernatural beliefs and practices. PLOS ONE 10:9e0136783
    [Google Scholar]
  221. Whitehouse H, Jong J, Buhrmester MD, Gómez Á, Bastian B et al. 2017. The evolution of extreme cooperation via shared dysphoric experiences. Sci. Rep. 7:44292
    [Google Scholar]
  222. Whitehouse H, McQuinn B, Buhrmester M, Swann WB 2014. Brothers in arms: Libyan revolutionaries bond like family. PNAS 111:5017783–85
    [Google Scholar]
  223. Wilkowski BM, Robinson MD, Troop-Gordon W 2010. How does cognitive control reduce anger and aggression? The role of conflict monitoring and forgiveness processes. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 98:5830–40
    [Google Scholar]
  224. Worthington EL, DiBlasio F 1990. Promoting mutual forgiveness within the fractured relationship. Psychother. Theory Res. Pract. Train. 27:2219–23
    [Google Scholar]
  225. Yoshimura SM, Boon SD 2014. Exploring revenge as a feature of family life. J. Fam. Theory Rev. 6:3222–40
    [Google Scholar]
  226. Young L, Scholz J, Saxe R 2011. Neural evidence for “intuitive prosecution”: the use of mental state information for negative moral verdicts. Soc. Neurosci. 6:3302–15
    [Google Scholar]
  227. Zagenczyk TJ, Cruz KS, Cheung JH, Scott KL, Kiewitz C, Galloway B 2015. The moderating effect of power distance on employee responses to psychological contract breach. Eur. J. Work Organ. Psychol. 24:6853–65
    [Google Scholar]
  228. Zhao H, Xia Q, He P, Sheard G, Wan P 2016. Workplace ostracism and knowledge hiding in service organizations. Int. J. Hosp. Manag. 59:84–94
    [Google Scholar]
  229. Zhong S, Chew SH, Set E, Zhang J, Xue H et al. 2009. The heritability of attitude toward economic risk. Twin Res. Hum. Genet. 12:1103–7
    [Google Scholar]
  230. Zillmann D, Katcher AH, Milavsky B 1972. Excitation transfer from physical exercise to subsequent aggressive behavior. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 8:3247–59
    [Google Scholar]
  231. Zourrig H, Chebat JC, Toffoli R 2015. “In-group love and out-group hate?” A cross cultural study on customers' revenge, avoidance and forgiveness behaviors. J. Bus. Res. 68:3487–99
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-103305
Loading

Supplemental Material

Supplementary Data

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error