Revenge and Conflict: Social and Cognitive Aspects - Conflict and Multimodal Communication: Social Research and Machine Intelligence - page 79

In fact, revenge is not motivated only by the desire of evening the score per se, but
achieving this goal is pivotal to the objective of changing the target's and audience's
beliefs about the avenger. This is in line with the predictions of the “understanding”
hypothesis (French 2001 ; Gollwitzer and Denzler 2009 ; Miller 2001 ;Vidmar 2001 ),
which states that the goal of revenge is achieved if the target understood why revenge
was taken on him.
Restoring one's own image in front of the audience is crucial, because the
avenger is a “backward looker” (Giardini et al. 2010 ), who gets stuck in the past
until he or she manages to even the score. Vengeance is not pursued to affect the
likelihood that the wrongdoer will repeat the aggression in the future, inducing her
to cooperate next time or deterring her from further aggressions. Revenge can work
as a deterrent, showing that the avenger intends to and is able to counterattack, thus
discouraging future attacks, but this is not the primary motive individuals have for
payback. Being the victim of a social harm means that one's social power has been
arbitrarily reduced and that the resulting lack of symmetry can be fixed only if the
target suffers a comparable damage, no matter how much risky or dangerous this
retaliation is. The avenger looks back in anger, so that what happened in the past
has to be rebalanced, without any concerns for the future.
This is why the goal of changing the target's beliefs, making him or her aware
that the avenger does not passively accept the aggression and is able and willing to
strike back at the aggressor (influencing the target), is so important. In revenge, the
audience plays a crucial role because the damage suffered is not only material, but
it usually has a strong symbolic component. This is especially true for “cultures of
honor” that have been documented throughout the world (see Daly and Wilson 1988 ;
Nisbett and Cohen 1996 ). According to Nisbett and Cohen, who greatly contributed
to unveil the main psychological and social features of cultures of honor in southern
United States (e.g., Cohen 1996 ; Cohen and Nisbett 1994 ; Cohen et al. 1996 ; Nisbett
1993 ; Nisbett and Cohen 1996 ), a key element there is that the participant in such
a culture is prepared to fight for his or her reputation for strength and toughness.
For instance, honor is an intangible asset that can be threatened by the aggressor
and that can be restored only if there is an audience in front of which the retaliatory
action is performed and that recognizes that action as an attempt to go back to the
initial situation.

4.4 Revenge as a Form of “Wild Justice”

Revenge is an individual behavior which may entail considerable risks for groups
and societies. On one hand, payback can be seen as “a kind of wild justice, which
the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out,” as stated by
Francis Bacon in his Essays . On the other hand, revenge can be an effective means
to prevent enlargement of conflicts, because of its deterrence effect: