Abstract: 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

摘要： 本研究通过设置不同的情景,考察冒犯者的冒犯意图与受害者报复方式的新颖性对冒犯者反报复想法创造性的影响以及宽恕干预的作用。结果发现：（1）无宽恕启动下,遭到受害者普通报复后,无意冒犯者的反报复想法比有意冒犯者更新颖;（2）无宽恕启动下,与普通报复相比,受害者的新颖报复可以促进有意冒犯者反报复想法的新颖性,但对无意冒犯者没有影响;（3）相比无宽恕启动,宽恕启动只能降低遭到受害者普通报复的无意冒犯者的反报复想法流畅性、新颖性和恶意性。这表明冒犯者的反报复想法创造性受到以上三个因素的交互影响。

关键词: 反报复, 冒犯意图, 宽恕, 创造性