July 17, 2008
On Vengeance
Females, older people, working people, people who live in high-crime areas of their country and people who are at the bottom 50% of their country’s income distribution are more vengeful.
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The findings suggest that vengeful feelings of people are subdued as a country develops economically and becomes more stable politically and socially and that both country characteristics and personal attributes are important determinants of vengeance.
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3 Responses to “On Vengeance”
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Who is left when you take Females, older people, working people, people who live in high-crime areas of their country and people who are at the bottom 50% of their country’s income distribution out? High income, young males who don’t work and live in low crime areas. I guess I wouldn’t be vengeful if I fell into that category.
Good point, anonymous. I guess one thing we might take from this, though, is that there is ultimately hell to pay for letting the distribution of wealth shift so heavily toward the top. Many more vengeful people, then. And perhaps this should be a lesson, in a global context, about how a wealthy country might best go about “fighting” terrorism: a look at the root causes, and an aim of addressing them in a constructive way, might go much further than a process that generates two new vengeful minds for each one that is eliminated by force.
@ anonymous: Aye. That would essentially leave the pot-smoking rural New England and California trust fund babies…not much to fear from there.