Revenge has affects on the human brain it is a rush of neural activity in the caudate nucleus, an area of the brain known to process rewards (in previous work, the caudate nucleus has delighted in cocaine and nicotine use). The actual execution of revenge carries a bitter cost of time, emotional and physical energy, and even lives. Behavioral scientists have observed that instead of quenching hostility, revenge can prolong the unpleasantness of the original offense and that merely bringing harm upon an offender is not enough to satisfy a person’s vengeful spirit. They have also found that instead of delivering justice, revenge often creates only a "cycle" of retaliation. (cycle meaning it is done over and over...) Why revenge could be satisfying. The first is known as “comparative suffering,” the idea that simply seeing an offender suffer restores an emotional balance to the universe. If this were the case, then victims of wrongdoing who learn of an offender’s misfortune should feel equally satisfied whether or not they were personally responsible for that misfortune. The second theory — the “understanding hypothesis” — holds that an offender’s suffering is not enough, on its own, to achieve truly satisfactory revenge. Instead, the avenger must be assured that the offender has made a direct connection between the retaliation and the initial behavior. From: psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2011/october-11/the-complicated-psychology-of-revenge.html
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 05:07:46 +0000
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