It is difficult to take offense or endure pain, and sometimes we take revenge indiscriminately, taking out anger on those who fall under the hot hand. Will revenge “work” if it is not directed at the offender?
It is known that revenge is sweet. But why do we sometimes take revenge with pleasure … not at all on those who offended us, take revenge on random people, hurt those who have nothing to do with our own pain?
On May 23, 2013, 25-year-old former British soldier Lee Rigby was suddenly attacked and killed by two Islamic extremists. A video that emerged after the assassination reported: Lee was killed in retaliation for the deaths of Muslim soldiers who are killed daily by members of the British army*. It would seem, how can the death of a person, possibly not involved in these murders, bring relief to the avengers? Scientist Arne Sjöström from the University of Marburg has proven that he can.
In his work, Arne raised an important question: does revenge directed at an outsider bring such satisfaction to the avenger, as if the offender himself suffered? It turned out that revenge can indeed lead to a sense of retribution if we take revenge on someone else – but only someone who belongs to the same social group as our offender has traits close to him.
Read more:
- Our experiences through the eyes of the Buddha
To prove the correctness of this statement, a series of experiments were carried out that confirmed Arne’s guess. A huge role was played by the similarity and relationship between the members of the group, which includes the offender. Influenced even the appearance of the candidates selected for revenge **.
Being offended, we strive for satisfaction at any cost. But if, having “winned back” on an outsider, we can get the same satisfaction as from revenge on our immediate offender, then it will be easiest to choose the most vulnerable among our neighbors. Thus, Arne’s study sheds some light on what may underlie violence not only in personal, but also in ethnic, intercultural, and international conflicts. In this regard, let us recall the words of Alexandre Dumas: “He who takes revenge sometimes regrets what he has done; he who forgives never regrets it.” After all, are we ever just when we take revenge?
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