Why vengeance is wrong

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Magical Thinking. Do Religions Deserve Special Status? This finding, however, does need to be taken with a necessary pinch of salt. There are currently no long-term follow up studies on how revenge feels days or weeks after the act. Preliminary — as yet unpublished results — show that revenge-seekers only get a momentary feeling of pleasure, Chester found. That begins a cycle and it starts to look like an addiction… then afterwards you feel worse than when you started," he explains.

And that might help explain why those who seek the high of revenge fail to anticipate disastrous personal consequences. The footballer Zinedine Zidane, for instance, will forever be remembered for head-butting Marco Matterazzi in the World Cup. Along a similar vein, Richard Nixon is well-known for his list of foes, the goal being to "screw his political enemies".

Some of his dirty tricks later led to his forced resignation. Unfortunately, revenge gives people pleasure Credit: Getty Images. The question then becomes, why has this seemingly destructive behaviour persisted in our evolution if it can cause us so much trouble? The answer is that far from an evolutionary mistake, revenge serves a very useful purpose. Michael McCullough puts it this way: although people might say seeking revenge "is really bad for you" — that it might ruin your relationships, for example — the fact that it exists at all is a very good thing.

Its main goal is to work as deterrent, which in turn has clear advantages for our survival. Consider prison or gang culture, where if you meddle with the wrong person, revenge attacks are a sure consequence. In Leonardo DiCaprio's Oscar-winning performance in The Revenant, so powerful is his desire for revenge that it keeps him alive.

With broken bones and open wounds, he drags himself through a hostile and dangerous terrain to avenge his son's killer. Even the threat of revenge might deter an attack, says McCullough.

Only then can the avenger move on "because that goal has been fulfilled", in a similar way that we only stop feeling hungry after we have satiated our appetite. So if a main purpose of revenge is about deterring harm, it is a very good thing indeed. That is not to say, says McCullough, that we should encourage people to indulge in seeking revenge. It might also be comforting to know that not everyone acts out on their desire to seek revenge.

One study found that men get more pleasure from the idea of revenge. Male participants were found to have more activity in the reward circuit of the brain than women when they saw cheating opponents receive an electric shock.

In another study , Ozlem Ayduk of the University of California, Berkeley and colleagues, found that those with specific personality types were more likely to act violently after rejection. She found that certain individuals had higher levels of "rejection sensitivity" — who were more likely to expect rejection based on past experiences.

These individuals were also found to be more neurotic and to show anxiety and depression. Rejection is an existential threat, so that expectation [of rejection] actually prepares — both mentally and physiologically — the person to defend themselves," says Ayduk.

Retaliatory aggression for these individuals was therefore a "knee-jerk" reaction to feeling rejected. Revenge is part of human nature Credit: Getty Images. It is important to note that not everyone who has the "rejection sensitive profile" has violent tendencies. Some deal with their feelings of rejection in other ways, such as self-harm.

They were getting revenge for what happened in Waco, Texas, exactly two years earlier on April 19, " — when U. Still, society constantly seems to be in a constant tug of war between seeking revenge and "turning the other cheek.

But pop culture celebrates vigilantism and stories where the heroes are driven by revenge. All superheroes are vigilantes. Comic book protagonists such as Batman and Spider-Man are motivated by a desire to avenge the death of a loved one or seek vengeance for those who are perceived as helpless — and they are two of the most popular superheroes of all time. Quentin Tarantino's latest film, Kill Bill — Vol.

Some argue that experiencing revenge, even through works of fiction, does not ease feelings of anger and vengeance. It increased those feelings of anger and retribution. So how does someone cope with a need for revenge? The first, and perhaps most important, step is taking responsibility for your emotions, like Bud Welch did. It's very important for the person to take responsibility for their anger and resentment. Since losing his daughter in the Oklahoma City bombing, Welch has traveled around the country and given lectures on his experience and his opposition to the death penalty.

He became associated with Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, a Massachusetts-based group that helps families cope with the loss of slain loved ones. To the anger of some Oklahoma City victims' families, Welch strongly opposed the execution of Timothy McVeigh in and warned his execution would not bring anyone true peace of mind.

Two years after McVeigh's execution, Welch says some families are still searching for the sense of closure they thought his death would bring. He just went to sleep. Two objectives of the criminal justice system are to obtain retribution for the crime victim while also rehabilitating the offender — goals which can seem to clash at times.

Some states have adopted victim offender reconciliation programs, where convicted offenders admit wrongdoing, have a supervised encounter with the people they've victimized and, under the guidance of a counselor, work out a restitution agreement. Under these programs, criminals pay for their crimes while having the chance to earn the forgiveness of their victims.