Vengeful Decisions: The Role of Perceived Effectiveness and Costliness of Revenge
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2013-08-28
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Abstract
Conventional wisdom suggests that individuals who decide to get even are driven by their emotions and cannot be swayed by considering the potential consequences of their actions. If this is the case, then perceptions of revenge’s consequences—its effectiveness and costliness—should be unrelated to the likelihood of taking revenge. The present study examined the relationships between these variables among 199 undergraduates. We had participants imagine that their romantic partners had cheated on them, and asked them to list the consequences, both positive and negative, of getting even, along with their perceptions of how effective and how costly revenge would be. We also asked participants to rate their endorsement of particular goals following a provocation. Ratings of revenge’s effectiveness are largely related to the positive consequences of getting even, while ratings of revenge’s costliness are largely related to revenge’s negative consequences. Goal endorsement is related to perceiving some potential responses to a provocation as more effective than others. Judgments of effectiveness and costliness predicted significant variance in the likelihood of engaging in revenge (R2 = .59) suggesting that perceptions of effectiveness and costliness may play a more important role in revenge decision making than previously thought. A significant Effectiveness X Costliness X Anger interaction (β = .89, p = .02) helps clarify how such perceptions are related to the likelihood of getting even. Implications and future directions are discussed.
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Rasmussen, K. (2013). Vengeful Decisions: The Role of Perceived Effectiveness and Costliness of Revenge (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28638