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The work contrasts common beliefs about catharsis and aggression with findings on prolonged negative affect, linking prediction errors to continued attention to the transgressor.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/interpersonal-relations-and-group-processes-the-paradoxical-consequences-of-revenge/607956/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/interpersonal-relations-and-group-processes-the-paradoxical-consequences-of-revenge/607956.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"McGucket","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-17",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":33},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"Why does revenge produce outcomes opposite to what people expect?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"People who punish tend to continue ruminating about the offender, whereas those who do not punish move on and think less about the offender. People also fail to appreciate the different affective consequences of witnessing versus instigating punishment.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"How does rumination relate to the emotional effects of punishment?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"The studies propose that punishment prolongs negative hedonic reactions by keeping the punisher focused on the transgressor, rather than shortening those reactions.",{"name":69,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":70},"What is the paper’s broader context regarding punishment and catharsis?",{"text":71,"@type":63},"The article reviews research showing that while punishment is widely studied for its justification and consequences, there has been limited work on the punisher’s affective consequences. It also discusses a common belief in catharsis—aggression releasing pent-up tension—and contrasts this with the paper’s focus on interpersonal revenge.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":74,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":76,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":78,"site_id":7},607956,1792607563,{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":82},"success",[83,87,91,95,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":84,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":131},{"doc_id":78,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":33,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":115,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},1236954412713,"https://us-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND GROUP PROCESSES  \nThe Paradoxical Consequences of Revenge  \nKevin M. Carlsmith Timothy D. Wilson  \nColgate University University of Virginia  \nDaniel T. Gilbert  \nHarvard University  \nPeople expect to reap hedonic rewards when they punish an offender, but in at least some instances, revenge has hedonic consequences that are precisely the opposite of what people expect. Three studies showed that (a) one reason for this is that people who punish continue to ruminate about the offender, whereas those who do not punish “move on” and think less about the offender, and (b) people fail to appreciate the different affective consequences of witnessing and instigating punishment.  \nKeywords: affective forecasting, punishment, revenge, rumination  \nOn April 16, 2007, Seung Hui Cho massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech University before turning the gun on himself. In the aftermath, some lamented that his death had robbed the survivors of the emotional satisfaction of exacting their own revenge. As one woman from the Midwest wrote on an Internet blog,“I don’t think there would be anything temporary about the satisfaction I would feel in being permitted to execute the person who killed my child”(Barnstead-Klos, 2007) .  \n“Sweet is revenge,” wrote Lord Byron (Don Juan, Canto I, Stanza 124) . Indeed, this belief may be both venerable and widespread, but is it right? Research in psychology and behavioral economics has shown that people often mispredict their hedonic reactions to future events because they mispredict how often they will think about those events once the events have ended (Schkade & Kahneman, 1998; Wilson & Gilbert, 2003; Wilson, Wheatley, Meyers, Gilbert, & Axsom, 2000) . We hypothesized that acts of revenge would cause people to continue thinking about the transgressor whom they have punished, which would prolong their hedonic reactions to the transgression rather than shorten them. Thus we predict that people punish others, in part, to repair their negative mood and to provide psychological closure to the precipitating event, but that the act of punishment yields precisely the opposite outcome. As the poet John Milton wrote,“Revenge, at  \nKevin M. Carlsmith, Department of Psychology, Colgate University; Timothy D. Wilson, Department of Psychology, University of Virginia; Daniel T. Gilbert, Department of Psychology, Harvard University.  \nWe acknowledge the assistance provided by James Elmers, Alison Potocki, Emily Drummond, Sue LeBarron, and Rachel Smith in conducting the experiments.  \nCorrespondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kevin M. Carlsmith, Department of Psychology, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346. E-mail: [kcarlsmith@colgate.edu](kcarlsmith@colgate.edu)  \nfirst though sweet, Bitter ere long back on itself recoils”(Paradise Lost, Book IX, Line 171) .  \nOur research, then, focuses on three questions: (a) What is the affective consequence of exacting revenge? (b) Do people accurately predict this consequence, and, if not, (c) Why do people make this error of prediction?  \nAlthough there is an enormous amount of literature on punishment, it has generally focused on the justification for imposing punishment (Bentham, 1843/1962; Ezorsky, 1972; Kant, 1790/ 1952) or on the consequences of receiving punishment (Skinner, 1938, 1974; Watson, 1924) . More recently, psychologists have begun to explore the motives behind the desire to punish (see Carlsmith & Darley, 2008, for a review), but there has been little empirical research performed on the question of whether instigating punishment against another person has affective consequences for the one who punishes. This absence is both surprising and unfortunate given the ubiquity of punishment across societies (Gintis, 2008) and the self-evident importance of this punishment to both instigator and target. Although this discussion is potentially relevant to the myriad forms of punishment (e.g., societal, legal, organ","cbCaitrpaIsNKGlm","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaitrpaIsNKGlm","pdf",92942,"English","# The Paradoxical Consequences of Revenge\n## Rumination and hedonic impact of punishment\n## Misjudging affective consequences\n## Catharsis and aggression beliefs","[{\"question\":\"Why does revenge produce outcomes opposite to what people expect?\",\"answer\":\"People who punish tend to continue ruminating about the offender, whereas those who do not punish move on and think less about the offender. People also fail to appreciate the different affective consequences of witnessing versus instigating punishment.\"},{\"question\":\"How does rumination relate to the emotional effects of punishment?\",\"answer\":\"The studies propose that punishment prolongs negative hedonic reactions by keeping the punisher focused on the transgressor, rather than shortening those reactions.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the paper’s broader context regarding punishment and catharsis?\",\"answer\":\"The article reviews research showing that while punishment is widely studied for its justification and consequences, there has been limited work on the punisher’s affective consequences. It also discusses a common belief in catharsis—aggression releasing pent-up tension—and contrasts this with the paper’s focus on interpersonal revenge.\"}]","INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS AND GROUP PROCESSES - The Paradoxical Consequences of Revenge | PDF",1792208237,23]