Despite that counter-revenge appears to be a significant aspect of conflict escalation, scholars have paid little attention to it. Counter-revenge means seeking vengeance following another's act of revenge against you. The offenders' offensive intention might influence their creative counter-revenge on victims, following victims' revenge against them. As cognitive stimulation, victims' original revenge might inspire offenders to take creative counter-revenge. Forgiveness might reduce the offenders' counter-revenge. But whether the offenders' offensive intention as well as victims' original revenge and forgiveness could really influence the offenders' creative counter-revenge on victims, is not clear. The purpose of this study was to explore this question.
The current study used a 2 (priming: forgiveness vs. non-forgiveness) × 2 (offenders' offensive intention: intentional vs. unintentional) × 2 (victims' revenge: original vs. common) between-subjects design. Participants were 285 college students. The dependent variable was fluency, originality, and malevolence of offenders' counter-revenge ideas towards victims. First, participants completed a questionnaire that measured their current mood. Subsequently, participants started the priming task. Specifically, participants in the forgiveness priming condition read ten classical sentences about forgiveness, while those in the non-forgiveness priming condition read ten classical sentences about people`s lifetime. Then, they were told the hypothetical scenario describing intentional (e.g., I bumped into a boy intentionally. The boy`s computer dropped on the ground and was broken. I swaggered away without saying anything.) or unintentional offense (e.g., I suddenly received an emergency call. When I hurried on my way, I bumped into a boy unintentionally. The boy`s computer dropped on the ground and was broken. Due to the emergency, I left in a hurry without saying anything), and asked to imagine themselves as the offender. They were also told the hypothetical scenario describing victims' original (e.g., the boy cheated you to eat a fish which was difficult to digest and could cause diarrhea) or common revenge (e.g., the boy funded someone to beat you) on themselves. After that, participants evaluated the originality of the victims' revenge, and answered questions about their offensive intentions and attribution. Finally, they were asked to write down as many counter-revenge ideas as they could think of.
Results showed a significant interaction among offenders' offensive intention, victims' original revenge and forgiveness. In the non-forgiveness priming condition, unintentional offenders generated more original counter-revenge ideas than intentional offenders after they suffered victims' common revenge. In the non-forgiveness priming condition, intentional offenders generated more original counter-revenge ideas after they suffered victim's original revenge than suffered victims' common revenge. After they suffered victims' common revenge, unintentional offenders generated less fluent, original, and malicious counter-revenge ideas in forgiveness condition than in non-forgiveness condition.
In conclusion, a significant interaction among offensive intention, victims' original revenge and forgiveness was found. The present findings provide evidence to support that the unintentional offenders intend to counter-revenge victims using more original ways than intentional offenders, forgiveness priming can reduce the fluency, originality and malevolence of counter-revenge ideas from unintentional offenders who have received common revenge from victims, and individuals can be stimulated to generate more original counter-revenge ideas after they suffered original revenge from victims, compared with common revenge from victims.
Key words
counter-revenge /
offensive intention /
forgiveness /
creative
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