WASHINGTON • A colleague steals your idea and then undermines you in front of the boss.
It is human nature to want revenge. But will getting even make you feel better in the long run?
People are motivated to seek revenge when they feel attacked, mistreated or socially rejected. Getting an eye for an eye, Old Testament-style, is thought to bring a sense of catharsis and closure.
A growing body of research suggests it may have the opposite effect.
Evolutionary psychologists believe we are hard-wired for revenge.
Without laws and prisons, our earliest ancestors relied on the fear of retaliation to help keep the peace and correct injustices.
"Acts of revenge not only sought to deter a second harmful act by a wrongdoer, but also acted as an insurance policy against future harm by others, a warning signal that you're someone who will not tolerate mistreatment," says Michael McCullough, a professor of psychology at the University of Miami.
In modern life, betrayal and social rejection hurt. The desire to repair that pain and improve our mood may be one of the things that motivates us to seek revenge, according to six studies published this year in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In one experiment, researchers asked 156 college students to write a short essay that would be submitted for comments.
The essays were randomly assigned to receive either positive feedback ("great essay") or negative ones ("one of the worst essays that I have ever read").
Afterwards, all participants were given a test that measured their emotional state and then offered the chance to retaliate by sticking pins into a voodoo doll that represented the grader of the essay.
Researchers found what we might suspect: Getting revenge felt good.
After sticking their dolls, the vengeful participants, whose moods slumped after they read their negative feedback, reported a rise in their moods to a level on a par with those who had received the positive comments. (Those who received positive feedback showed no change in mood after the voodoo doll task.)
Revenge may provide a lift, but the positive effects appear to be fleeting, according to new research by David Chester, a Virginia Commonwealth University assistant professor, that has not yet been published.
"Revenge can feel really good in the moment," he says, "but when we follow up with people five minutes, 10 minutes and 45 minutes later, they actually report feeling worse than they did before they sought revenge."
Research suggests that when it comes to valuable relationships, "what the angry mind ultimately wants is a change of heart from the transgressor", Prof McCullough says.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but sometimes, the most helpful thing a wronged party can do is to create conditions that make it easier for the person who hurt you to be honest about what they did and to take responsibility, he says.
"Revenge may make you feel better for a moment," he adds, "but making the effort to repair a valuable relationship can pay bigger dividends over a lifetime."
WASHINGTON POST
