The Vicious Cycle of Revenge and Counter Revenge

Abstract

Individuals seek revenge to cause some form of harm to the perceived offender. Often, such acts of vengeance lead to a complete breakdown of the relationship between two individuals. Why would someone choose to hurt and destroy the relationship they are intimately involved with despite knowing the adverse outcome? This has been the focus of researchers in the field of romantic revenge. Numerous social-psychological theories are proposed to explain why an individual might seek revenge against their significant other. Some other studies have looked at potential personality traits such as psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and vengefulness that can increase the likelihood of seeking revenge, and others such as narcissism and agreeableness, which can decrease the likelihood of seeking revenge. However, little is known about how the personality traits of both partners impact the likelihood of engaging in revenge. The current study looks at a potential trait-based explanation for romantic revenge. Furthermore, this study aims to examine if there would be an interaction between the traits and their partners' responses to their likelihood of seeking counter-revenge. This study recruited 200 participants from an online platform. Participants were then assigned to one of two groups: the control and experimental groups. They read a hypothetical scenario based on their group and completed the revenge and counter-revenge questionnaire along with three other personality questionnaires. The results showed that there was a significant positive correlation between Machiavellianism and vengefulness but not psychopathy. There was a negative correlation only with agreeableness but not with narcissism. There was no interaction, implying the presence of the current traits, and their partner's response did not make any further changes to their inclination to seek revenge. Keywords: revenge, counter-revenge, Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, vengefulness, agreeableness.