Revenge in Couple Relationships and Their Relation to the Dark Triad.

Miguel Clemente,Pablo Espinosa

doi:10.3390/ijerph18147653

Miguel Clemente, Pablo Espinosa

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147653

Copy DOI

Abstract

Background: This research examines how, when a romantic partner commits a perceived transgression that leads to couple break up, vengeful reactions are predicted by the type of transgression and the Dark Triad of personality. Methods: An incidental sample of 2142 participants, half male and half female aged 18 to 70, completed a questionnaire developed by the authors to assess how they had reacted after being the perceived victims of a transgression committed by their partner and a measure of the Dark Triad. Results: Results show half of the people who feel as though they are victims of a partner transgression show revenge reactions. These reactions are more emotional than rational and do not usually anticipate their consequences or success. Moreover, revenge is related primarily to psychopathy and to a lesser extent to Machiavellianism. Psychopathy is the best predictor for revenge thoughts and actions, whereas narcissism does not predict revenge when controlling for other dark traits. Conclusions: This study contributes to the explanation of revenge reactions in couple relationships in relation to the type of transgression perceived and the Dark Triad. Conflicts that arise out of revenge may have long-lasting consequences for both the perceived aggressor and victim, and our results may be useful for assessing risks, monitoring, and preventing negative consequences for partners or ex-partners.

Highlights

This research examines whether the thoughts and actions of people who take revenge in retaliation after suffering some perceived harm are related to Dark Triad traits: Machiavellianism, subclinical psychopathy, and subclinical narcissism [1]
A series of criteria were established for sample selection: Participants were chosen among people who had had a couple relationship, which had lasted at least six months, and that resulted in a breakup due to a negative interaction event experienced as detrimental that the respondent blamed on the other partner and led them to consider revenge
The advantage of using very broad categories was that responses were easier to identify as belonging to a category and that no category had a small number of cases compared to others, about one in 20 responses did not fit in any category

Summary

Introduction

This research examines whether the thoughts and actions of people who take revenge in retaliation after suffering some perceived harm are related to Dark Triad traits: Machiavellianism, subclinical psychopathy, and subclinical narcissism [1]. Results: Results show half of the people who feel as though they are victims of a partner transgression show revenge reactions. These reactions are more emotional than rational and do not usually anticipate their consequences or success.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion