Why revenge is bad

Very few can identify with Ali's tragic story and the circumstances under which he suffered his loss. But everyone has felt the need to extract revenge. From being cut off in traffic by a rude driver and wanting to return the favor, to fantasizing about putting a school bully in his place, we have all felt wronged by someone — and mulled ways of gaining vengeance. It is inherently unhealthy because it takes a psychological and physical toll on the person.

Venting those feelings of anger and hostility does not decrease those feelings," he said. Revenge spawns an endless cycle of retribution.

It is not a long-term solution, but a quick-fix. That, experts say, is part of its appeal — it gives a wronged party some gratification, even though it is only temporary. Some people equate revenge with seeking justice, but the two are not the same. People who seek revenge are driven by anger and violence and have not thought about how channel their negative feelings into something positive.

They have not considered how they could use their negative experience — the injustice they suffered — to bring about change. Bud Welch fought his rage and desire for retribution when his daughter Julie was killed along with other people in the Oklahoma City bombing. Welch had opposed the death penalty before his daughter was killed, but he reversed his stance as he tried to cope with his loss in the weeks following the bombing. I thought the federal government and prosecutors were useless and I just wanted them fried.

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Mental Health. StopAsianHate Support Hub. Coronavirus Support Hub. Research Papers. Here are 7 reasons why seeking revenge is a bad idea: 1. In fact, it might make you feel worse. It could backfire. You are wasting precious time. How can you make way for new, positive experiences if you are preoccupied with wreaking havoc?

Because, karma. This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here. More From Forbes. Dec 9, , pm EST. Nov 13, , pm EST. Aug 10, , am EDT. Jul 14, , pm EDT. Jul 8, , am EDT. Jun 3, , pm EDT. Mar 18, , pm EDT.

Nov 7, , pm EST. Oct 13, , pm EDT. Revenge is a powerful emotional trigger that mobilises people into action. Hamlet's quest is motivated by revenge, like so many stories throughout history Credit: Getty Images.

And it shapes politics too. Donald Trump's presidential victory, for instance, came as a result of "revenge of working-class whites… who felt abandoned by a rapidly globalising economy," according to an article in the Washington Post. The same sentiment is echoed by many other outlets. While the topic of aggression is well-studied — its triggers include alcohol , being insulted and narcissistic personality traits — revenge is lesser understood.

It is not easy to untangle from violent behaviour, making it a difficult topic to study. David Chester of Virginia Commonwealth University was initially studying aggression but quickly realised that there is often a lot more going on before a violent interaction. He refers to the emotions involved as the "psychological middlemen" — the thoughts and feelings that come between a provocation and an aggressive outcome.

He set out to uncover more about what causes it. First he, along with his colleague Nathan DeWall of the University of Kentucky, discovered that a person who is insulted or socially rejected feels an emotional pain.

The area in the brain associated with pain was most active in participants who went on to react with an aggressive response after feeling rejected. In a follow-up study he was surprised to find that emotional pain was intricately yoked with pleasure. That is, while rejection initially feels painful, it can quickly be masked by pleasure when presented with the opportunity to get revenge — it even activates the brain's known reward circuit, the nucleus accumbens.

People who are provoked behave aggressively precisely because it can be "hedonically rewarding", Chester found. Revenge it seems really can be sweet. Richard Nixon was well-known for his list of foes Credit: Getty Images. The link between aggression and pleasure itself is not new. The "father of psychology" Sigmund Freud was well aware that it could feel cathartic to behave aggressively, but the idea that revenge provides its own special form of pleasure has only become apparent recently.

To understand this further, Chester and DeWall set up a series of experiments , published in the March journal of Personality and Social Psychology, where the participants were made to feel rejected by being purposely left out of a computerised ball tossing game. All participants were then allowed to put pins in a virtual voodoo doll. Those in the rejected camp stabbed their doll with significantly more pins. This rejection test was first done remotely online and later replicated with different participants brought into the lab.