Regrettably, revenge is in the spotlight. Just to mention three recent examples, the news1 (15th November 2015) defined the bombs dropped by France on Islamic State Jihadi training camp after the Paris shootings as “revenge.” Only 2 days after, president Putin literally claimed on TV that “revenge is unavoidable”2 (17th November 2015) toward the Syrian rebels responsible for the Russian jet dow...

This study examined whether personality factors are associated with people’s appraisals of the costs and benefits of romantic revenge. Our goal was to extend our understanding of variables that influence individuals’ decisions to get even with romantic partners. Undergraduates (N = 130) completed the HEXACO personality inventory, the Vengeance Scale, and questionnaires examining people’s belief...

Cyber-harassment and Revenge pornography are international problems that can cause psychological, financial and physical harm to their victims. And yet, despite legal efforts in several countries, the law has yet to fully address these issues. Instead, enactment and enforcement of laws is undermined by the gendered nature of these acts, which leads to (typically male) police and prosecutors to ...

Revenge pornography, also known as nonconsensual pornography, is a subtype of cyberharassment/cyberstalking, and a serious problem facing society in the Internet age. Revenge pornography can result in lifelong mental health consequences for victims, damaged relationships, and social isolation. Recently, a growing number of states have recognized the importance of this phenomenon and have enacte...

In this paper, we examine the roles of forgivingness (i.e., forgiving personality) and anger on victims’ responses to unfair events. Results of our study show that the effect of perceived unfairness severity on one’s behavioral responses is mediated by his/her anger. In addition, forgivingness moderates the relationship between perceived unfairness severity and victim’s revenge behavior, such t...

This study focuses on examining the counterproductive behaviors of academics, who have a lesser likelihood to show revanchist acts on account of the characteristics of their professional group, defining the purposes, means, and reasons of revenge, and determining the results of revanchist behaviors. To this end, we conducted a qualitative study on the academics who were working at Turkish state...

We address how trait self-control and trait concern for others relate to the concepts of monitored and intrinsic Welfare Tradeoff Ratios (WTRs), respectively, and how recent work on personality, revenge, and forgiveness are informed by the adaptationist perspective proposed in the target article. We also discuss how the proposed adaptationist perspective provides clues to some previously puzzli...

McCullough et al. propose an evolved cognitive revenge system which imposes retaliatory costs on aggressors. They distinguish between this and other forms of punishment (e.g., those administered by judges) which are not underpinned by a specifically designed evolutionary mechanism. Here we outline mechanisms and circumstances through which the revenge system might nonetheless infiltrate decisio...

Humans have the cognitive abilities to implement the revenge and forgiveness systems hypothesized by McCullough et al., but the evidence suggests that simpler processes may underlie most revenge cases in humans and other animals. The mediating role of emotions can be at the basis of the flexibility needed in the hypothesized systems and the associated assessment of social relationships.