It is, according to popular wisdom, a dish best served cold. However you like yours, there鈥檚 no denying that revenge is tasty. We get a hunger for it, and feel satisfied once we鈥檝e had our fill.
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You can see why if you look at what鈥檚 going on in your head. Brain scanning reveals the neural pathway of the revenge process, according to criminologist Manuel Eisner of the University of Cambridge. The initial humiliation fires up the brain鈥檚 emotional centres, the amygdalae and hypothalamus. They inform the anterior insular cortex, which evaluates whether you have been treated unfairly. If so, the prefrontal cortex steps in to plan and execute retaliation. Finally, the brain鈥檚 pleasure centre, the nucleus accumbens, swings into action to judge whether the revenge is satisfactory.
Revenge appears to be a universal human trait. found that all of them had a culture of vengeance. The list of wrongs that need to be avenged is also common across all societies. It includes homicide, physical injury, theft, sexual aggression, adultery and reputational damage to oneself, loved ones or members of your tribe. The concept of 鈥渁n eye for an eye鈥� also runs deep, with punishment usually being roughly proportional to the crime.
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鈥淭he list of wrongs that need to be avenged is common across all societies鈥�
For many years, scientists viewed revenge as pathological and tried to find ways to promote its more cool-headed mirror image, forgiveness. Now, however, they are more likely to see it as an instinctive cognitive trait that evolved to lubricate our often-fraught social interactions. From this point of view, the desire to inflict punishment on somebody who has harmed you makes sense. The original wrong cannot be righted, but the revenge is a social signal that makes others think twice about wronging you again.
Even so, it鈥檚 easy to get revenge wrong. Undercook it and you reveal that you are worth exploiting. Overcook it and you risk starting a tit-for-tat cycle of revenge, which is in nobody鈥檚 interest. The fact that we often make such misjudgements might help explain why we have evolved an instinct for forgiveness, too. Evolutionary psychologists see this as , to minimise any fallout from revenge. Once it is enacted, mutual forgiveness follows, and the relationship is reset 鈥� until the next time.
In modern societies, revenge is normally delegated to the state, which can exact the ultimate punishment of locking people up or even putting them to death. Still, many people prefer to take it into their own hands. Revenge can spill over into vigilante violence. It is a major motivation for terrorists. And it is a causal factor in up to 20 per cent of homicides worldwide. All of which suggests that revenge might in fact be a dish best avoided.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淩evenge鈥�
