Outside psychology, revenge has often been defined as an affect-driven, hostile, irrational, and impulsive reaction – a “psychological malfunction” (K. Horney). Within psychology, revenge is defined as “what individuals do with the desire to get even for a perceived harm” (Tripp & Bies, 1997). But the question is: what does “getting even” mean exactly? Under what circumstances do victims experience psychological closure and a sense of justice achieved by taking revenge against the perpetrator? We explored these questions in a series of studies, which I will describe in this talk. In a nutshell, our findings show that revenge aims at sending a message to the perpetrator (“Don’t mess with me!”), and that avengers experience a sense of justice achieved only when this message is received and understood by the perpetrator. In more recent studies, we explored the communicative function of revenge in more complex social settings (i.e., displaced revenge) and in the context of therapeutic interventions that help victims cope with traumatic experiences (i.e., Imagery Rescripting). Together, our findings not only contribute to a better conceptual understanding of revenge; they also have practical implications for finding constructive solutions to injustice conflicts.
Event
The (Social) Psychology of Revenge
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Speaker Prof. Dr. Mario Gollwitzer
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Location
Belval Campus, Maison des Sciences Humaines (MSH), Black Box
11 porte des Sciences
L-4366, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
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Topic(s)
DBCS, FHSE